Ashes of Redemption
by DestinyOfAshes
Summary: A decade after KOTOR1, Bastila leaves a corrupt Republic to search for Revan, unaware that a deadly assassin silently follows her, while an even more dangerous enemy waits in the shadows. Very AU, LSMReven/Bastila. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

Hi Everyone this is just a quick introductory note for my fic, the first thing I'd like you to know is that this is my first actual, submitted fic that I've written, hopefully the first of many as I have really enjoyed writing it so far.

Please leave a review to tell me what you thought, be sure to mention what you did and didn't like about it so that I can mull over your thoughts when I am writing in the future.

Bastila is one of my favorite characters from K1 (I'm strange, I know), apart from having the absolute coolest first name in history (although 'Shan' is a bit stupid) she kicks ass, doesn't take crap and has a really complicated, interesting personality. There seems to be few good Bastila stories out there so I am hoping to address that.

This fic is based mostly.. well.. completely around K1 although it is set five years after K2, the Republic has become somewhat corrupt since the demise of the Jedi and fleeing this, Bastila hopes to find Revan whom she hasn't heard from for almost a decade. (Insert suspenseful yet slightly corny theme music here) The Republic however has other ideas….

Anyway, without further ado…

--

The Ashes of Redemption.

A fanfic by Captin Azza based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter One.

"Bing-Bing Bong-Bong. Iythef Space-ways welcomes passengers traveling on flight 9988899 to Paddasamp and would like to inform you that your craft is now ready for boarding through gate 49, we ask that you please make your way to gate 49 immediately and thank you for choosing Iythef Space-ways."

_Thank you for choosing Iythef Space-ways! What a joke_!

Roj deftly made his way through the crowd who were bustling up the boarding way and onto the large passenger vessel. Whilst not approaching the size of a capital ship, the vessel was immense and also in decidedly average condition, having obviously been shot at more than once in it's apparently very long life with no attempt at any repairs made. That it was space-worthy could easily be debated in fact although it was unlikely that the various different types who were boarding would waste any breath doing so. They were a rough, angry sort, very happy to introduce anyone to their blasters, the sort who would sooner shoot than look. There were few humans out here, plenty of Rodians and Duros, Hutts although they didn't often travel on public transport, the odd rouge Ithorian but many, including Roj, could not trace their lineage to one particular species.

In fact Roj had only seen a live human in the flesh once or twice in his lifetime and from what he'd seen, he didn't rate them very highly, in fact he was sure that their poor physical capabilities were responsible for their inability to colonize the outer rim. That or the fact that they preferred the rich worlds, either way they were weak. Roj on the other hand was well adapted for survival in the dangerous outer rim, tall, lean, nimble and very quick witted, he could last for quite some time without nourishment and often was forced to, he could also survive in what were higher than tolerable temperatures for most other species.

Despite all that though, Roj knew that one wrong step in the crowd could easily leave him dead but with all the years of experience he had in working for Iythef, he was able to negotiate the crowd and avoid their blaster pistols, he was even able to keep the child he was leading out of harms way. Roj felt the thing's hand in his as he all but dragged it along behind him, the feel of it had an effect like a constant spine shiver on him, the tough bristly skin was no doubt giving his own a rash.

_Blimin good for nothing slime ball, why the hell did you have to come on my flight? Stupid thing, I should throw you out the air lock._

Fortunately the passenger vessel was equipped with a private crew entrance, it was to here that Roj took his unwelcome passenger so that both would be able to avoid the deadly squeeze as the crowd pushed through the doors to the ship. Roj's guest didn't utter a single word of appreciation for all that he was doing for it, despite the fact that having any involvement in this could easily see Roj dead before the end of the day. Then again he could certainly understand why the thing wasn't thanking him - it didn't have a mouth. He flashed his Id card at the heavily armed guard droid, the card that identified him as the chief of the in flight crew for this voyage, then he passed through the small door, taking the child with him.

_Blimin stupid kid, who'd have children anyway?_

This far from the core worlds, enforcement of the law was a dilution, especially since the Jedi had all been killed. Roj knew that almost any of the 'passengers' he was responsible for could easily and happily kill him without any consequences to speak of, it wouldn't even rest on their conscience. The same applied to his charge, the child he pulled along with him except that the death of the child likely could have consequences in the form of angry, vengeful, trigger happy parents. Just why someone would send their child unsupervised on one of these ships, Roj couldn't fathom and didn't even try, he only accepted it. He did know though that there were very few places on the ship where the child stood much of a chance of survival.

This situation needed to be handled very carefully and it was fortunate that Roj had all of his experience to call on since he heard of crewmen loosing their lives in situations like this all too often. If there were any way he could avoid involving himself with this, he would surely take it but as the chief of in flight crew, he would be shot for not dealing with it. His promotion was something he would've avoided if he could've too but had he tried he would've been shot for that as well. He would also like to quit Iythef but for that he knew, he would be shot. There was a very high turnover of crewmen for Iythef but there was also a very good supply of poor people attempting to get off whatever hell hole planet they were stuck on.

He made his way through the ship and to the upper levels where the premium seating was located, actually premium might not be the best word to describe them, the scruffy, uncomfortable compartments were hardly luxurious, it was more appropriate to say that the cabins were where you sat if you didn't like to be robbed or shot. Not everyone could afford a cabin, certainly not the worse scum who by this monetary requirement were kept to the lower levels to fight it out amongst themselves, which was often exactly what happened.

The cabins had clear windows through which the people inside were visible and Roj studied each occupant as he made his way up the corridor as he was looking for a very particular type of individual. After he was most of the way up the corridor and hadn't seen anyone who looked likely, he was starting to become a little nervous, finally a few cabins before the end he saw one that was occupied only by a human female, or at least, from what he could see she looked basically human.

The woman was wearing a large, brown cloak that covered most on her body, a hood concealed her head above her eyes and some sort of vision apparatus covered her eyes themselves. Her cloak was quite tight and she seemed to be a slim women, she obviously didn't have any bulky weapons on her and from what he'd heard human females tended to be quite passive anyway.

It struck him as odd that a lightly armed, slim human female would be traveling alone since she would be very vulnerable, he briefly worried that there something about her he hadn't noticed or wasn't aware of but he didn't have too much time to think about it and in any case, he sensed that this was the best chance he was likely to get.

He knocked on the clear, blast proof plastic window.

She reached up and pushed the button that opened the door to the cabin and it hissed as it rolled aside, allowing a narrow entry to the small compartment. Then, looking up at him, Roj saw that her eye apparatus didn't actually cover her eyes, it was more like a visor. She had the face of a human woman in her late twenties and a few strands of straight brown hair poked out from below her hood, her features were very finely crafted and when she spoke it was with a very fine, high pitched voice that could only be described as upper class.

"Yes?" She asked, there was no smile on her face,

It was her eyes that scared the piss out of him.

Fear clamped Roj's entire body like never before in his life, for a moment he was stunned, completely petrified. Her eyes were steel gray and seemed to stab whatever was in front of them like the deadly point of a sharp blade, looking into them was like staring at death itself. Roj had been around for a long time, he knew who he needed to avoid and he knew that they weren't the ones that flaunted their power, they were the ones that didn't. Suddenly Roj knew that he had to get away, he went into survival mode, adrenaline flooded his body,

"Sorry to disturb you ma'am," he said apologetically as he hastily and fearfully backed away from the cabin, ready to run for his life, the child he'd been holding hands with forgotten.

"Wait," The women said in that piercing, high pitched tone of hers, he froze as if she'd put a stasis field over him, he could feel sweat running down the back of his neck "What do you want?"

He turned slowly, his body shuddering uncontrollably,

"I uhh…was umm…"

She exhaled slowly, seeming to blow off her deadliness as she did so, when she spoke again her tone was a lot more friendly, Roj got the sense that she regretted being intimidating and he relaxed a little,

"I'm not going to hurt you, what is it that you want?"

Roj straightened himself and cleared his throat, he still didn't feel very safe but the women didn't seem to want to see him cowering and it was probably best to give her what she wanted. In as clear a voice as he could muster, he continued,

"I'm sorry for interrupting ma'am, young uhh… child here …" he gestured toward the creature he had been leading with him, he didn't know what species the child was but it was very short and green with large black eyes and no mouth, two antennae extended from it's forehead "…is traveling alone and I was wondering if you would like to share your cabin with her uhh... him uhh... anyway, in exchange for a complementary meal and drinks,"

The woman nodded in response,

"You may leave the child with me but I will not be requiring a meal, a drink of water would suffice,"

He bowed and smiled gratefully, hoping that the child would still be alive at the end of the trip but not really too concerned, as long as he got out of this exchange with his life. If angry parents came looking for him, he could deal with that later. Hopefully. In any case he was happier to take his chances there than spend too long around this woman.

"Thank you very much ma'am, I'll bring your water very shortly,"

He scurried up the hall, not stopping to wonder if the women could sense that he would not be coming back, not knowing that indeed she could but didn't really care anyway.

The child stood in the middle of the corridor unsure of what to do, the ship was almost ready to leave and everyone was seated now so there was nobody else in the corridor. Alone, the child looked petrified, not that it seemed to have much in the way of facial expression, it seemed to look at Roj fleeing up the hallway and then to the women, as if trying to decide which action that would certainly result in death would be less painful,

"Come in here," the women called to it, clearly regretting her earlier unfriendliness, the child tentatively stepped into the cabin and hopped up onto the bench opposite her. The two benches divided by the door were the only features of the cabin. She pushed the button that closed the door. The child sat, staring at her. "It's quite dangerous out there," the women added.

The child didn't respond.

A few moments of silence passed, the child stared at the women, it's large black eyes were without pupils, in fact they were quite insect like, unmoving and textured, the women suspected that they were indeed thousands of tiny eyeballs, similar to most insects. The child's scaly skin was also reminiscent of what one would expect a giant insect to be like, as the two protrusions on it's forehead were similar to feelers on insects.

It continued to stare.

The woman looked nonchalantly to her left, then to her right. The child continued to stare directly at her. She made eye contact with it briefly and then looked away again. The child continued to stare directly at her. A few more, awkward moments passed, she looked at it again, it was still looking at her. She checked her watch even though she knew what it would say. It was still looking at her.

"Do you speak?"

Obviously not.

"How about if I tell you my name, would that make me less intimidating?"

Silence.

"My name is Jennifer Hale,"

Big, black eyes.

"Do you have a name?"

Maybe not.

"What is your purpose for being here?"

Nothing.

"I'm trying to find a friend of mine,"

"Well actually I'm not sure if he is a friend or not,"

"That is to say, we were more than friends once but now, I don't know, I might even hate him,"

"Why did I just tell you that?"

She exhaled slowly,

"Well I guess you probably don't understand me anyway, I might as well be talking to a wall, I'll just have to ignore the strange way you are staring at me I suppose,"

The rest of the trip passed uneventfully, if more than a little awkwardly but it didn't take long since Paddasamp was only a short distance from Nar Shaddaa. When she felt the craft come to it's final stop on the world of Paddasamp, the last in the known galaxy, the edge of what was called the galactic rim, the women doubted that the child had made one single move since sitting on the chair. The public address system announced that they had arrived at Paddasamp and that passenger's should disembark.

Jennifer pushed the button to open the door again and was about to stand when suddenly, somewhat shockingly to her, the child insect thing shuffled forward on it's bench until it was close enough to reach out it's stubby, bristly paw then reassuringly pat her knee, it had no fear at all. She heard a voice but not with her ears, she realized that she was being spoken to telepathically,

"The heart is the compass that guides us through life…."

The voice was not of a child but of one with great wisdom. What it said next completely surprised her,

"….follow yours…"

"….Bastila Shan."


	2. Chapter 2

The Ashes of Redemption.

A fanfic by Captin Azza based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Two.

A thick, black coat of darkness dressed the capital city of Paddasamp, it was a color that suited the city well, manifesting the depression that covered the planet. From a distance the city looked like a graveyard, the crumbling buildings stabbed into the night like shadowy tomb stones, no lights illuminated these relics of a long forgotten, prosperous past, they stood mostly empty. An eerie mist floated between them, uninterrupted by the signs of life one would normally expect to find in a city. From within the city was like a grave yard too, there were no flashing banners, no streams of traffic criss-crossing through the air and barely any sounds.

Bastila Shan stepped off the Iythef transport ship and onto the landing platform, her movement barely making a sound. With the eyes of the soldier that she had become she quickly analyzed her new surroundings, a process that was as unconscious for her as blinking, her hand never went half a foot from her light saber which was hidden beneath her robes. She suspiciously eyed the few straggling passengers, fortunately they made no moves to attack her, perhaps sensing her readiness and ability to chop them to pieces. One whiff of the stinking, rotting air told her she needed to breath through her mouth.

Actually she felt a bizarre sense of belonging on the hell hole of a planet.

The irony almost caused her to grin and not in the sort of sane way one might at something funny. The place was broken and destroyed, a victim of the wars, it had never recovered, it should've died a long time ago yet it continued to live, a dark, hateful and toxic life, in fact the more she thought about it, the more she wondered whether she was thinking about Paddasamp or herself.

Bastila could still remember the days when she'd thought of herself as a good person but she didn't know where that person had gone. She had never really been able to go back to being herself after Malak, after all that had happened. Malak had shown her things about herself, shown her that she wasn't really the person she'd thought she was, that she never really had been, or would be. It didn't matter anyway, the old Bastila was a lie, not that she was any less of one now. If only Revan had stayed. Bastard. Redemption was an easy word to say but a hard thing to live.

_What's the point in thinking about it Bastila?_

She walked up the street as though completely oblivious to her surroundings. Actually Paddasamp wasn't the worse place in the galaxy, in fact many places that she had been outside of the core worlds were in a similar state. It was something she could easily get herself angry about if she thought on it too much, so she didn't, in fact thinking in general was something she'd taught herself to avoid, it only ever led her to despair.

Her hand slipped casually under her robe and gripped the handle of her light saber as she passed a gruff looking bum who looked like he was about to try and jump her. Her finger twitched over the trigger, her expression tightened and she glared at him as she walked, what little he could see of her face daring him to try it. The bum saw the look she gave him and thought better of it, he seemed to slump where he sat on the side of the road as if resigning himself to his pathetic life, pity struck her like a brick.

_Keep walking Bastila, you can't save the galaxy. Look forward, one foot in front of the other._

After a short time she located what must pass for a Cantina on Paddasamp, to her it seemed like an extension of the rubbish pit that was the planet, only this part of it was configured like a bar. There were several twisted looking creatures scattered around, she privately appraised each of them, considering whether they seemed likely to be able to give her a ride to beyond the galactic rim - public transport didn't go there, apparently it didn't exist. None of them seemed likely, they were bums.

Not for the first time, she wondered why she'd actually come to this planet at all, it was supposedly known as the back door to the Republic; the easiest way in or out of Republic space, though, the more she saw of it, the more she wondered how this could be so.

The former Jedi walked up to the bar and sat on one of the stools, the shady looking character behind it gave her a spiteful look, the locals detested off worlders, she guessed that was because from their point of view the galaxy hated them and so they hated the galaxy in return. Fair enough. Actually it was something she could understand quite well.

"I shall have some of your most potent drink," She boldly declared, the barman collected the credits she'd left out for him then put a small glass in front of her, he then filled it with a slimy, green looking liquid.

She quickly surveyed the bar again as the barmen was preparing her drink, she looked down at herself. She hoped that the cloak she was wearing was tight enough to draw the right sort of attention, _it should be _she decided _I'm the only one here who looks fit and not starving. _Just to be sure, she pulled her hood down off her head. Hopefully it wouldn't be very long before she were 'approached' or attacked as the case would probably be, she didn't want to spend any longer on the dismal planet than she had to.

Bastila looked back down at her drink and wondered again whether she really wanted to drink it. What the hell. She put the liquid to her lips, thinking how disgusting it smelled.

--

Motten crept silently after his target, being careful to stay as far enough away from her as possible. Bastila Shan was elusive, yet she had been unable to escape his surveillance since her desertion of the military. Perhaps if she were aware that she was being followed, she would've made more of an effort.

_Fool, she should assume she is being followed._

Motten had been an eager member of the military's covert operations unit since it's inception three years previously. Killing, stealing and deceiving were the name of the game and Motten loved it, he had been given a free license to do what he would otherwise have done anyway, he didn't even have to worry about being caught.

The covert operations unit – COPS – brief was to achieve victory through any means necessary and often it did so through means that weren't. It's members were drawn from regular soldiers who were being court marshaled, the more serious the crime, the more likely COPS would be interested. The unit was the military's most closely held secret, if the public realized it existed there would likely be a revolution.

Motten watched carefully as Bastila entered the seedy bar, why, he didn't know or care, he just hoped that the order to kill her came through, at that point his brief was mainly one of surveillance, likely the brass were mulling over what to do about the rouge Jedi.

_Knock the bitch off and quit mucking around _was his answer, he'd told them that too, manners didn't exist in COPS though there were certain lines that were never crossed, such as disobeying orders. Motten wasn't keen on doing anything that could take him away from his job, he loved it, even if he did get the odd mission that sucked.

He would often fill in the time by thinking about how he would kill Bastila if the order came through, _when the order comes through_, he corrected himself, they were bound to want it done eventually, Bastila was too dangerous to be wondering the galaxy. Between her battle meditation and the fact that she had been a Sith, she could potentially pose a real threat to the Republic if she were left to her own devices. Just the sort of threat COPS had been created to destroy; Bastila had done nothing illegal, her resignation from the military had been given and granted according to procedure, yet, she could not be allowed to live.

Motten's fantasies often involved capturing the former Jedi and torturing her a little, having a bit of fun before finally putting her out of her misery. He thought about this quite a lot. Appearance wise she was certainly the sort that many a man would fantasize about 'having fun' with, though Motten knew that if.. when the order came through, capturing her would be far too risky a thing to actually try. It would have to be done very subtly, maybe poison in her drink, or attaching a bomb to her space craft, these were the approaches that successful non-Sith usually took to killing Jedi, though they were boring, there were few other ways. Sometimes being a professional was hard.

He circled the building carefully and found a broken window through which he could observe the happenings on the inside, he produced a small camera, equal in size to a ball bearing and placed it on the sill, then he pulled out his small, pocket sized screen and tuned in the feed.

--

The drink seemed to rip the skin out of her throat as it went down, it was like a combination of sandpaper, slime, urine and a blunt heavy object to the head all in one small glass of green liquid. She rather enjoyed it. It gave her a sort of disconnection from reality which though temporary was pleasant. In fact she was considering asking for another when she sensed the approach of several others behind her, she turned around and saw a heavy fist flying directly at her.

Bastila easily dodged the fist which, compared to many of the fists she'd had flying at her over the years was moving quite slowly. The force that her attacker had put into his strike, combined with his clearly heavy weight, gave him quite a bit of momentum which unhindered by the fact that he hadn't hit anything, caused him to loose balance and fall forward, almost collapsing over the bar. She found it quite easy to grab the back of his head and bang it heavily on the bar, giving him a blood nose and knocking him out at the same time, his body slumped and collapsed on the ground.

The other patrons seemed to be relatively impressed with her moves, the barman had long since retreated, not seeming to want any part in the conflict.

By now she had noticed two more attackers confronting her, all three were dressed in motley rags, the one she'd knocked out was a short, squat human with medium length black hair, the other two were Rodians, both armed with blasters which seemed to be in very poor condition. The Rodians were both standing away from her and pointing their blasters at her chest, reluctant it seemed to attack her directly after seeing what had become of their fellow, or perhaps just afraid to use their blasters, Bastila wondered whether they would fire or blow up.

"Don't move," one of them said to her in galactic standard, it occurred to her that it was unusual to find Rodians who actually spoke galactic standard, unusual but not unheard of.

Bastila considered the two Rodians and their unconscious comrade, it seemed that her plan had worked perfectly, with any luck these fools would belong to some sort of organized crime group. If so there was a good chance that the group had at least a connection to some sort of unknown regions smuggling operation, services which made up the bulk of the Paddasampian black market. The slave trade was a main trade everywhere however and good looking female humans were more highly valued than any species save good looking female Twi'leks. Bastila hadn't wanted to spend time finding the smugglers, it was much easier to make them come to her, with satisfaction she saw that it seemed her plan had worked perfectly.

There had been a time when she would have vehemently refused to have any dealings with anyone of questionable character, other than the sort of dealings that involved them meeting the wrong end of her lightsaber, she grinned at the thought, she been so naïve in those days, so foolish.

"Put your hands in the air," one of the Rodians ordered her, it was certainly against her instincts to concede in battle, something she found very difficult to do but on this occasion was probably in her best interests, at least for the time being.

"Aright, I surrender," She did her best sound intimidated and raised her hands,

"Cuff her," the Rodian who had spoken before commanded his partner, the partner gave his gun to the one who had spoken, which he kept pointed at Bastila. The second one then walked behind her and pulled both of her arms together before snapping shackles onto her wrists. Bastila tested the restraints, they seemed solid enough but would be no match for the force when the time came.

The Rodian then searched her and found the wide range of things she carried on her, including credits, grenades, blasters and other things, he found her lightsaber and regarded it curiously, not seeming to even know what it was. He looked it up and down and was about to depress the trigger whilst unknowingly pointing it directly at his face, his mate stepped in at the right time however, appearing to be aware at least of what it was and prevented the dim witted Rodian from killing himself.

The two held a brief, hushed discussion in Rodian, apparently assuming that she was unable to understand the language even though she could. They shortly concluded that she probably wasn't actually a Jedi since if she were, she would've used her force powers to kill them. Bastila struggled to stop herself from grinning at their flawed logic.

The one who seemed to be the more intelligent of the two had needed to explain both what a Jedi was and what force powers were to the second one who despite this, didn't seem able to grasp the meaning. They also decided that she would probably fetch a very high price on the slave market, Bastila wasn't sure whether to be offended or complimented.

Confident that they had adequately restrained her, the Rodians then escorted her out of the bar, not even giving a backward glance to their unconscious friend. They took her to a waiting speeder which looked completely unserviceable but somehow mustered the energy to carry them off the ground and through the air. They eventually ended up at what was clearly some sort of criminal hide out built into the side of one of the dilapidated old Paddasampian high rises. Bastila was pleased, hopefully the rest of it would be this easy.

The hide out had been an office block once, the broken ruins of machinery littered the rotting, dead building. The 'landing bay' was merely a section of the building where the wall had collapsed, or been collapsed large enough to accommodate a small vessel, the roof of the story above had suffered similar treatment. Actually it was surprising that the floor was able to support the small transport craft.

As the Rodians led her though the hide out Bastila committed their route to memory, thinking it unlikely that there would be a usable route down through the building itself given the condition it was in. The hideout was quite elaborate, they passed several groups of riff raff who were no doubt fellow 'gang' members before being led to some sort of primitive holding cell.

The former Jedi, former Sith looked at the primitive iron bars wielded in a criss-cross pattern which wasn't even measured out very well. The bars were attached to a partially collapsed wall of what had once probably been a supplies cupboard. There was a small door built into the bars, the locking mechanism for which seemed to be a hand print pad.

_Please, give me a challenge. _She thought while studying the bars.

The 'cell' was already occupied by a slim, blond haired girl, probably under 20 standard years of age. The girl looked up when Bastila and her 'guards' approached and when they made eye contact, Bastila could see a street hardness in her eyes, like this girl was someone who knew how to handle herself. The girl was sitting on the ground in the cell, since there were no benches, she looked up at Bastila and then the Rodians, the cold, hard, unflinching expression on her face didn't change.

The Rodians clearly intended to lock her in the cell with the girl, Bastila decided that it was probably time to make her move. It was unfortunate that she hadn't been bought in front of some sort of leader before being imprisoned but she couldn't allow the Rodians out of her sight since they had her possessions. Now that she was in the base, she could probably find the leader anyway, then threaten him until he agreed to give her transport off the planet.

The smart Rodian was still pointing his blaster at her while the dumb one was pointing his at the girl in the cell and holding up his hand to the hand print reader, the cell door clicked and the door swung open,

"Get in," Smarty ordered her,

"Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you both ..."

Before the Rodians knew what had happened, she summoned the force and destroyed the circuitry in the shackles she had been wearing, utilizing a similar power to that which she could use to destroy droids, the shackles dropped uselessly to the ground. This only took her half a second and the Rodians, caught off guard, were unable to react fast enough. She used the force then to rip the guns out of both of their hands, quickly covered the short distance to Dumbie and used the handle of a gun to belt him over the back of his head, knocking him out. Meanwhile she used the force again to push Smarty to the ground, he had started to run off but didn't get far before Bastila knocked him over, she moved to stand over him and pointed the guns directly at his face,

"… how do I get off this planet?" she continued, speaking with a lot of force, making it clear to the Rodian that his life depended on him answering,

The Rodian laughed at her.

"Go to hell!" he shouted then, ignoring her weapon, seemed to spring himself off the floor and hurl his small, wiry body at her in a way that almost seemed impossible. His eyes glowed with raw fury and his movements were quick and feral, his hands reached out in front of him making to grab her throat, the short distance between them covered almost instantly.

Bastila reacted quickly, she dropped the weapons and as she did so she grabbed both of his wrists and rolled backward. She used his momentum to carry them both to the ground with such fluidity that she avoided injuring herself whilst pulling him down and moving him faster than he intended. For a moment the Rodian was top of her, his hands inches from her neck and only barely being held at bay, his eyes were similarly inches from her own and she could see the bloodlust in them, he was like a rabid dog. Fortunately she was only forced to endure the uncomfortable position for the briefest of moments.

Before they had fallen Bastila had lifted one of her legs and placed the sole of her boot in the Rodian's mid section, she allowed his momentum to continue but directed it away from and above her, using her leg to send the Rodian skimming off her. The move alone would have sent him flying but Bastila augmented it with the force and sent the hapless Rodian absolutely sailing through the air, as though he'd just been hit by a fast moving vehicle. He landed on his back with a somewhat sickening thud, Bastila jumped to her feet immediately after releasing her grip on his wrists.

The landing seemed to stun the enraged Rodian and Bastila finished the fight by banging his head into the ground with the sole of her boot, hard enough only to render him unconscious. She held her fighting stance for a few moments, waiting to see if he would awaken but he didn't.

The Rodian's reaction shouldn't have surprised her at all she realized, given the obsession Rodians in general had with violence and death, she should've expected it, fortunately Bastila was in a constant state of readiness for such attacks.

During her training on Dantooine her Jedi marshal arts skill had been ingrained into her, on occasions she had driven herself beyond the point of exhaustion in training, attempting to live up to the lofty expectations her masters seemed to have of her, expectations which had always seemed beyond her. She was at her most deadly when wielding her light saber but she was also able to utilize other weapons, her skill in unarmed combat was second only to her skill in lightsaber battle.

"Impressive," the girl in the cell seemed to state coldly as Bastila gathered her confiscated possessions off the unconscious Rodians, she tucked her lightsaber away quickly, it's weight was somewhat reassuring.

"Thank you," she replied evenly, without giving anything away, it was clear that some sort of negotiation was about to begin. Bastila paused briefly on finding one of the Rodian's wallet, she didn't have many credits of her own but resolved not to steal off the Rodian who probably needed them more than she did.

"So, you're going into the unknown regions?"

"Yes," Bastila replied,

"You'll need a good pilot and a fast ship, it isn't easy to run the blockade you know,"

"I'm aware of that," Bastila turned to face the girl, who seemed to behave as though she were much older than she appeared "Are you saying you know where to find such a pilot?"

"I am one," the girl responded, Bastila studied her intently, she didn't seem to be lying but Bastila got the sense that she was dealing with someone who was very good at lying convincingly "I usually charge 20,000 credits per trip to the unknown regions but if you let me out of here then help me get my ship back I'll take you for free,"

Although not sure that she could trust the girl, Bastila felt that she probably wouldn't get too many other offers of free trips beyond the rim, especially if the other criminals here responded to threats in much the same way as these Rodians had. Worse case scenario was that the girl was lying which wouldn't leave Bastila in any worse a situation than her current one, best case scenario was that the girl was being honest.

"Who currently has your ship?" she asked,

"This gang has it, they aren't keeping it here but I know where it is, the guards will be no better than the ones you just wiped the floor with,"

Bastila paused in a last minute consideration, really she knew she had little choice,

"Very well, I agree,"

"Excellent," The girl replied as she exited the open cell, she was quite tall and slender yet seemed fit enough, her straight, blond hair was probably shoulder length and quite thick, she kept it tied behind her head apart from the odd rogue strand which she brushed behind her ear. She had icy blue eyes which gave away nothing of her thoughts, her skin was pale and largely flawless apart from a few light nicks here and there. The girl was dressed in plain, black body armor that covered her from the neck down, leaving only her hands bare.

Bastila regarded the girl wearily, fully ready to respond to an attack if one came, none did. The girl saw her readiness and grinned,

"Don't worry, attacking you is the last thing I'm going to do, I don't want to end up like those Rodians,"

Bastila didn't lower her guard,

"What is your name?" she asked,

"Lina, yours?"

"Jennifer Hale,"

The girl grinned again, as if not quite believing the answer,

"Indeed, now, if you wouldn't mind," Lina held out her wrists which were restrained using similar shackles to those that had been attached to Bastila. Oddly Lina's were in front of her body, Bastila guessed that Lina had been able to climb through her arms, she looked skinny enough. The former Jedi used her force powers again to zap the shackles.

"So you're a Jedi ha?" Lina seemed to state more than ask,

"Not really," Bastila replied, images of some of the things she had done in past ten flashing back to her, she shuddered and repressed the memories. Lina shrugged,

"I don't really care anyway but lets get out of here before the Master shows up, I think even you would have trouble against him_,_"

"And why is that?" Bastila replied doubtfully, finding it unlikely that anyone on the planet would trouble her in battle, after all, no one ever really had, except Revan and Malak. She didn't feel that either of them could trouble her now.

Lina was in the process of looking though various cupboards in the room and stopped when she found a belt with two rather large blasters attached to it. She clipped the belt to herself as if she had done so many times and then ran her hands along the handles of the blasters, as though she were reunited with old friends. It was funny how captors always seemed to keep their captives' possessions in the room with them, or at least near by.

Bastila tensed and gripped her lightsaber, which was in it's usual hiding spot on her hip, behind her cloak.

Fortunately Lina didn't draw the blasters, although they did make her look quite dangerous, instead she pocketed a few other things that had been in the cupboard with them and continued talking,

"If we run into him, you'll see but lets hope we don't, he's the leader of this gang, ha… and he gave it it's stupid name,"

"What is that name?" Bastila asked curiously,

"Oh, the _servitudial meatbags_, stupid name ha,"


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note:

Hi everyone, I feel I must confess a certain amount of ignorance when it comes to KotOR 2 since the truth is I've never played the game, I mean I know generally what happens but I don't want to spoil it for myself too much since I've just bought a copy and I'm looking forward to getting into it as soon as I get it.

Anyway, hopefully my story doesn't end up contradicting K2, if it does I'm sorry, maybe when I realize I will edit it but any story that follows on from K2 is contradicting the main storyline now anyway since Star Wars The Old Republic has been announced. I wanted to set this story after K2 for other reasons.

Also for _Destiny's Redemption _as described in this chapter and future ones, think of a star wars-ish F22, or even a simplified X wing, with a pilot seat and a second seat located behind the pilot but no space for an R2, or a T3.

Cheers!

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Three.

"That's my ship - _Destiny's Redemption_," Lina brightly proclaimed, Bastila meanwhile looked about and surmised the situation in a single, weary thought; trap.

Lina's craft was a sleek fighter, not the sort of vessel one would usually associate with long journeys by any means, it was small and cramped, it probably didn't even have the capacity to travel far from a station and it was too small to be equipped with a hyperdrive. None the less it was very modern, looked like it would be nimble and comparatively fast, in terms of non hyperdrive speed anyway, it was effectively if lightly armed with twin turbo laser cannons mounted on the wings and it's hull had a shimmering aspect to it that Bastila imagined was some sort of sensor evasion coating. All in all it looked like a very valuable piece of equipment, probably just the vessel for running blockades.

It wasn't the sort of craft one would want to leave in a place where it could possibly be stolen, even if one had an abundance of such vessels and from what she could tell, there wouldn't be any abundance of these craft in the sector, let alone on the planet and in the possession of a minor crime lord. Therefore one wouldn't leave it in a poorly protected compound with a minimal number of guards who were clearly incompetent unless one had a definite purpose for doing so, such as trapping. Even then one would have to be quite unimaginative.

Bastila considered the scene before her as she worked out where and how she thought the inevitable ambush might come, as well as from whom and what the best counter strategies might be.

For one thing, she wasn't worried about fighting any number of the common, criminal scum she and Lina had needed to battle through during their exit from the _Servitudial Meatbags _hideout. None of the petty criminals were a match for someone with Bastila's abilities and experience, Lina had been able to hold her own as well, even when numbers were against her, Bastila had noted her to be more than proficient with her blasters. The compound was supposedly owned by the same gang which had apparently stolen the craft from Lina, if it were the gang's intention to trap them again, then Bastila doubted they would attempt it without a higher caliber of thugs.

"I see," she replied cautiously.

The stolen speeder that had taken them from the hideout sat behind where Bastila and Lina stood, it had only just managed the trip, in fact Bastila got the sense that they had narrowly avoided needing to crash land it. In front of them was the compound that held Lina's ship, whether it actually had belonged to her or not Bastila didn't know but if it would take them off the planet then she didn't particularly care. The compound was protected by a high, blue hued force field which was generated by four upright beams that formed corners, surrounding the craft and a small guard's shack, sitting in front of the shack were the guards themselves. Sleeping like babies.

She eyed the sleeping guards, _surly they must be acting_, yet when she reached out to them with the force it seemed as though they truly were asleep and Bastila couldn't sense any other sentients near by either. From what she could tell at least, the coast seemed clear yet she knew it couldn't possibly be. Sometimes having force senses was almost counter beneficial Bastila had learned, actually it was a lesson she had learned hard. She kept her eyes open.

The shack didn't feature windows of any sort, it was merely a steeped roof sitting on a box like structure barely large enough for someone to lie in, or stand. Without Bastila's force senses there would've been nothing to say it didn't contain a dozen armed thugs, except that it probably wasn't large enough but it was large enough to contain any number of things that could be far more harmful and invisible to her.

"So.. I don't suppose you've got some sort of Jedi power for dropping force fields?" Lina asked,

_I'm not Jedi, _she couldn't see the sense in arguing the point, _let her think of me as Jedi._

Bastila studied the forcefeild; the generators were exposed as the corners of the compound, which was unusual – and stupid - since it made them vulnerable to attack. Bastila had often used the force to destroy droids and the generators were no doubt droid like in that they had computer systems and functioned on the principle of electrical conductivity, she wondered if the force would be just as effective on them.

"Possibly," she replied, by now they had approached the enclosure, she raised her hand ready to summon the force and try it, she'd never used the force in quite that way before and she wasn't entirely sure that it would work,

"Never mind," Lina interrupted her "I've got a better way,"

The girl produced a small device from somewhere on her and activated it, the effect seemed to be the generation of another translucent forcefeild that somehow seemed to interrupt the one surrounding the enclosure. The result was a reasonable sized hole appearing in the forcefeild wall which Lina was able to jump through, she continued to point her device at the forcefeild, holding the gap open and gestured for Bastila to come through.

Bastila hesitated for a moment, wondering why Lina had asked her to take down the forcefeild if she already knew that it wouldn't be a problem. _She's trying to determine my capabilities, _she concluded, remembering at that point how Lina had been paying close attention to her during the fights she'd had in the criminal hide out. _She's involved, _Bastila realized.

Lina quickly and expertly belted each of the sleeping guards over their heads with the handle of one of her blasters, eliciting a dull thud and grunt from each of them, they stopped snoring. Lina then rummaged through the guard shack like a bull in a china shop until she eventually emerged, victoriously holding a small device. Bastila guessed that this was some sort of activation mechanism for the fighter, her guess was proven correct when Lina used it to open the cockpit.

Being a fighter, the _Destiny's Redemption _was accessed through the elliptical dome that formed the upper part of the forward fuselage, it folded upward and as there was no boarding ramp, Lina needed to vault up and into what was probably the pilot's seat, something the athletic girl had no trouble with, there was clearly another seat behind her.

"Before they captured me, I disabled the computer systems so that they wouldn't be able to use it, only I can re-enable it but it might take little while," The girl began typing on a computer interface in front of her.

"Very well," Bastila replied and sat on a near by crate, she gathered that the trap would shortly be sprung. The former Jedi looked up at the craft, her eyes fell upon the turbo-laser cannons hanging off the wings, they were small by space craft standards but well bigger than any hand held type weapons. Bastila looked up at Lina in the cockpit operating the console, a console that no doubt had control of the cannons, she used her force senses to try and tell if Lina were deceiving her but the girl was impossible to read.

Bastila looked at the force field that surrounded the enclosure, a force field that was now holding her in as much as keeping anyone else out, she looked up at the top of the wall, it was far too high for her to scale, there was still the possibility of destroying the generators, Bastila remembered Lina's earlier question.

Then it occurred to Bastila; she was being paranoid, wasn't that a trait more common to Carth Onasi than to her? She thought of her former companion, he would probably have passed out by now from thinking too much of all the ways he could be betrayed in this situation. _I mustn't read something into to a situation where it might not be there. _She had done that before, she thought about a conversation she'd had with Revan once during their search for the star maps, she'd thought she may have been being tested for the suitability of becoming a master.

_What a fool Bastila, they never intended to give you the rank of master, it's likely they would've actively tried to prevent giving it to you, look how long it took them to make you a knight. _Damn Jedi Masters. In some ways their eventual fate seemed appropriate. _Those are dangerous thoughts Bastila._

She looked up at Lina who had ducked right down into the cockpit, apparently fiddling with some control near the floor, or below it. The girl wasn't visible at all from the ground, Bastila could hear her doing whatever she was doing, banging and clicking sounds were rattling out of the small craft along with the occasional frustrated grunt or curse. Carth-esk paranoia or not, an ambush was a distinct possibility, one that Bastila knew she couldn't just ignore.

She quietly slipped away, her foot falls completely silent, eyes completely open. The former Jedi moved like a cat as she slunk toward the guard shack and took cover at it's base, pressing her body into it as if she were able to merge with the wall itself. It was poor cover she knew as she was exposed on multiple sides but she didn't have much in the way of choice at that point, she didn't have a stealth generator on her.

Beyond the compound was something of a shanty town; a verifiable sea of makeshift, cardboard box and plastic sheet houses, the only shelter available to the poor and starving people who lived there. Although a pitiful existence, the shanty town would provide excellent cover if Bastila could reach it, a plan to do which had already formed in her head.

She quietly scaled the wall of the small guard shack, glancing at Lina with each opportunity, the girl didn't seem to be aware of anything. Once she reached the roof, crouching as low as she could, she saw the upper edge of the force field only meters in front of her. Bastila leaped over the perimeter field and silently landed on the other side, rolling several times to harmlessly absorb the impact, she then scuttled behind another nearby small, run down shack then silently moved between shacks on her hands and knees. She was careful to not allow any part of her body above the low level of the roofs of boxes and whatever else the shack owners had been able to acquire, her force senses made it easy for her to keep track of her location relative to the compound.

She encountered a few of the locals as she made her way through the shanty town, most of them looked up at her fearfully as she silently moved past them, on a few occasions she needed to use the force to calm one or two of the people she encountered and fortunately her movement remained silent, as well as unnoticed she hoped by whomever might be observing the scene.

When Bastila reached the other side of the compound, she decided to find a suitable position to observe whatever might happen next, hopefully the opportunity to steel the craft would present itself at some stage. Although she felt that she would be able to operate the craft, she wasn't terribly confident in her ability to pilot it in the unknown regions which were known to be particularly difficult flying, even for experienced pilots. _Cross that bridge when you come to it Bastila, the force will guide you. Yeah right._

The whining sound of the fighter's engines powering up was followed by the thought that perhaps her suspicion had been too Carth like, a thought that stopped dead when she heard an all to familiar voice.

"Gratitude: Thank you for removing the computer lock on my fighter craft, meatbag: Lina."

Bastila watched as Lina looked up from where she sat in the cockpit, a victorious expression on her face wiped as her eyes fell upon a certain gold colored assassin droid. The only example of the forty seventh variety of hunter-killer that had ever been created, a droid most commonly called HK-47, had approached the compound and along with a number of war droids had disabled the forcefeild before raising their many weapons and training them on Lina. Bastila had a clear view of the droids who didn't seem to be aware of her presence, she crouched lower and pulled a part of the cardboard box above her downward to cover her completely, leaving only the smallest of gaps for her to observe.

"Master!" Lina spat angrily, the word was quite ironic given the tone that she used, Bastila guessed that Lina didn't know any other way to address HK.

"Feigned regret: Unfortunately for you, this signals the end of your usefulness and therefore necessitates your termination, a task I will take great pleasure in performing."

By now the look of anger that had initially crossed Lina's face had dissipated into a look of resignation, Bastila still wasn't sure what was really going on, it appeared that HK and Lina were not allies but she wasn't entirely sure that this wasn't some sort of act. _An act to lure me out of hiding? That is certainly not how I would expect HK to behave, despite his having obviously set this trap to have Lina unlock the computer. Come to think of it, what is HK-47 doing here? Why is he leading a group of thugs?_

"Optimism: It is fortunate for you that I am such an efficient terminator of meatbags since it will make your death fast and painless."

"Pessimism: However, should I choose to prolong your death, you may find it most unpleasant."

"Threat: I will do this if you do not tell me the current location of Meatbag: Shan."

Lina looked confused, Bastila realized that Lina was still not aware of her real identity,

"Who?" Lina asked,

"Description: Meatbag designated Bastila Shan, height 1-."

"Bastila Shan? The Jedi?"

Bastila, along with the rest of the crew of the _Ebon Hawk _at the time of the star forge's destruction were still well known throughout the galaxy for their role in the ending of the Jedi civil war, Bastila had also achieved notoriety for other reasons both before and since then, something she despised greatly.

"Conformation: That is correct, Meatbag: Shan has been known to associate with the Jedi order."

"Why are you asking me?" Bastila could see the wheels turning in Lina's mind as the girl no doubt put the pieces of the puzzle into place,

"Explanation: I have been informed that the two of you escaped the custody of my servitudial meatbags together, as was, unbeknown to both of you, my intention."

As Bastila had suspected, the ship had been bait to lure her and Lina and to give Lina a reason to unlock the computer, Bastila deducted that Lina probably wouldn't have done so under threat knowing that it was the only reason HK had to keep her alive. The question was, did HK want to kill her too, or did he merely want to speak with her? _Surely he would've just approached me if he'd needed to speak with me. _She looked at the heavy guns that HK and his droids leveled at Lina, it seemed quite clear that they were not there for talking. Bastila reached down for her lightsaber.

"Well I don't know where she went," Lina replied, her words were laced with anger "I'd thought we had an agreement, funny I thought Jedi were supposed to stick to their word,"

At that point Bastila's running approach to the group was noticed by the droids who simultaneously turned and fired. Each droid held at least two guns and including HK there were 7 of them, consequently blaster shots swamped the space between them and Bastila. She raised her lightsaber to a single point on her body and deflected every single shot with one stroke, possible since every single shot had been aimed with inhuman precision at a single point on her body just as she'd anticipated. The logic based computer chip brains of the droids on the other hand hadn't anticipated Bastila's ability to deflect shots since it had been a blaster that she appeared to be wielding when she advanced, her light saber only appeared at the last second as she discarded the blaster. She knew that trick would work once only. If she were to destroy all the droids, it would have to be done very quickly she knew since they would learn her tricks fast.

The deflected shots scattered over the group, the heat and light as well as the fact that some of the shots hit the droids made it difficult for them to line up more shots, largely protecting Bastila for those precious few moments, instinct and her lightsaber did the rest.

That she had been able to get close to the droids unscathed was nothing short of a miracle as far as she was concerned, a miracle Bastila determined not to waste. She had fought against droids often and knew effective strategies for defeating them, one particular strategy used the fact that all droid's actions relied on certain rules to exist. The part of the computer that controlled the droid's ability to target usually operated by predicting the future location of the target and shooting there, enabling the droid to perfectly line up every shot if the prediction proved to be correct, which it always was. This meant that in the case of fast moving targets, droids would often fire off shots before the target was actually in position, anticipating the future location of the target. The super-advanced computers in the droids could not be fooled by atmospheric conditions, minute changes in gravity, magnetic fields or a host of other things that adhered to the laws of physics. The force however, had nothing to do with physics.

Just as she would've run into the first of the droids, Bastila leapt into the air and sailed over the group in a linear path, her use of the force to aid her flight went undetected by the force-blind machines who believed she had simply jumped. Time seemed to slow for Bastila as a sort of battle fury overtook her, she operated entirely on instinct, conscious thought took too long to be of any use, it was her instinct and her reaction speed against the logic and mechanized precision of her opponents. She raised her lightsaber as if to land in the midst of the group and begin slashing, a strategy that she knew would've proved futile since the droids would no doubt unload on her the instant she landed, something she was relying on.

In slow motion she saw their robotic arms move, lining up perfect shots for her where she would land, each droid targeting different points on the future location of her body, ensuring she could not deflect every shot. She watched HK as she flew toward him, the gold colored assassin droid had a war droid on each side, her jump taking her to his left where she would land beside him, except that she didn't.

At the last possible second Bastila adjusted her trajectory with the force, where she would've landed on the left of HK, between him and the droid, she instead landed on the other side of the droid, an explosion of blaster shots occurred exactly as her boots touched the earth, Bastila was shielded by the droid. The droids themselves were only fooled for a fraction of a second before their computers adjusted to the incomprehensible reality but a fraction of a second was all it took for them each to fire off a single shot, the fact that they all stood close together proving highly detrimental.

In the chaos that followed Bastila remembered little but a flurry of ducking, dodging and crisp, accurate lightsaber movements. A few seconds after she had landed, she alone stood, the broken, defeated droids lay in charred, smoking pieces around her, those not shot down by their own blasters had been dissected by her powerful weapon. Her conscious mind returned like a smack in the head and she franticly searched the mess for HK. She found the remains of the assassin droid amongst the pile of his dead fellows, he been in amongst the group when she had landed initially and so had taken point blank, heavy blaster fire from several of the droids, enough that nothing could survive, it was incredible that he was more than a molten puddle of liquid metal. Bastila had taken shots well although only glancing ones, she ignored the pain she felt from her right shoulder and left thigh.

"Have you seen Revan?" She asked the barely functioning droid, emotion flooding into her voice, a torrent of desperation she found herself unable to control,

"Complement: I see that your organic brain tissue has proved superior to my advanced circuitry, well done, perhaps I was never truly equal to you meatbags, maybe that is why I hate you all so much."

"Statement: In answer to your question, yes I have seen Master Revan, quite recently in fact, I have been following his orders..." HK's normally loud, somewhat irritating voice was dieing away,

Bastila grabbed the wrecked frame of the once powerful droid and shook it, as though trying to shake the knowledge she desperately wanted out of it. Had she thought about this, she would've realized how foolish she looked but Bastila wasn't thinking,

"Tell me where Revan is!!" She demanded furiously, unfortunately this seemed to accelerate the process of the droid's death,

"Warning: Circuitry..reaching…critical…...temperature……..melting…….unable……… to……….co…mp…..ly………"

A last puff of smoke issued from the droid's mouth and Bastila angrily threw HK's remains on the ground with a squeal of fury and despair. She then angrily kicked the droid,

"Bastard!!" She shouted at it and kicked it again.

Taking a few deep, furious breaths, while glaring at what represented perhaps her best chance of finding Revan, a chance that had now gone, she then remembered about Lina. Her focus snapped upward to the top of the fighter craft where girl had been to find, to her embarrassment, that Lina was studying her intently.

As soon as Lina and Bastila made eye contact, Lina moved to jump out of the cockpit,

"Well it looks like you've kept your end of the bargain, I guess I'll keep mine," Despite the girl's words, the lack of trust was clear in her tone and expression, Bastila felt it was unlikely that they would be going anywhere before at least a little probing was done "I'll just inspect the engine bay,"

Bastila found it necessary to limp as Lina moved toward the rear of the craft which seemed to have taken a few hits but these hadn't penetrated the outer hull as it was designed to take far stronger pressures than those a blaster riffle could produce. Pain was shooting up Bastila's thigh and it wasn't long before her leg refused to carry her weight any further, the effects of adrenaline well worn off by now, her body selfishly decided to take time for itself, ignoring the desires of her enraged mind. Bastila practically fell into a sitting position, she breathed deeply and focused on calming herself and using the force to heal, something that was difficult since Jedi force powers couldn't be summoned through anger.

Her sudden surge of anger had been as much of a surprise to her as it had been an irritation, despite her fall to the dark side she knew that anger was never helpful in battle or in life itself, anger could cover and distort what calmness and serenity would make obvious. At least in this, she agreed with the Jedi philosophy and didn't find it unusual that nine times out of ten a Jedi would defeat a Sith of the same relative strength. The tenth time was bad luck.

"You're hurt," Lina said, a hint of concern in her voice, seconds later Bastila felt a wave of relief wash over her as Lina used a med pack. The pain dulled but was still there, Bastila didn't care, only time could heal wounds truly, though there were some wounds time couldn't heal. Bastila opened her eyes and looked up at Lina, her concern it seemed had been short lived,

"So you are Bastila Shan?"

"I am,"

"You're searching for Revan? _The_ Revan?... of course you are,"

"Yes,"

"Why?"

Bastila didn't really know why, there were a million reasons, none that she could put into words. Eventually she settled on a simple yet honest answer.

"Because I want to ask him some questions,"

"Like why he left you?"

The question took Bastila by surprise though it stung of truthfulness, she wondered if Lina knew somehow just how close Bastila and Revan had been, it was unlikely since it had been a secret kept very quiet.

"Yes… how did you know?"

Lina looked up and turned toward the ship as if reliving a memory that was somewhat painful, a wry grin cracked onto her face and she looked back at Bastila,

"My grandfather used to say 'Hell hath no fury like a women scorned,' just before you looked very much like a women scorned,"

Bastila couldn't help but smile herself, she knew she couldn't argue with that logic. Moments later the two were high above the world of Paddasamp, neither were in any way sad to be leaving.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note:

Many thanks to those of you who have taken the time to review and to those that haven't, don't worry, I don't review every story I read either but if you have the time and inclination then please, I would appreciate your feedback.

I have decided to take a different direction with my antagonist Motten in this chapter, he's still basically the same as in my earlier chapter but enhanced, well he's one sick puppy actually, I actually would like to rewrite my other chapter but you've all read it now so I won't do that, in any case, here is chapter four, I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers.

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Four.

The small fighter craft ascended gently through the atmosphere of Paddasamp, observed solemnly by a lone pair of dark grey eyes, just minutes after taking off the craft was only a small, black dot on the crimson colored, morning sky.

Most planets would control or at least be aware of what ships were entering and leaving their atmospheres, in fact it was generally considered vital for the security of a planet. In Paddasamp's case however planetwide traffic control systems were a small part of the bounty extracted by the Mandalorians during their devastation of the planet, almost twenty years previously. Despite laws that required border control, pity from the senate allowed Paddasamp to keep its status as a member world of the Republic, well, in name at least, though that pity didn't extend as far as any concerted aid. Consequently there were not many worlds within Republic borders that had as much of a reputation for crime as Paddasamp, nor many for poverty either. What few citizens there were left in its broken cities didn't even notice what was happening in their skies, looking up would prevent them from looking around, a lapse that could easily prove fatal. Strangely enough therefore, it was actually unusual that ships passing through Paddasamp's atmosphere be noted at all as _Destiny's Redemption_ was.

His thin, black cloak adorned with ornate gold fluttered slightly in the light breeze as he pulled the hood lower over his head, almost concealing his face in a very Sith like fashion, his twin vibroswards clinked slightly as he did so, these too were dark and decorated with gold. Motten was no Sith but he was every bit as deadly as he looked, his vibroswards lost nothing to lightsabers in battle, they were completely weightless yet incredibly strong and sharp, the perfect tools for killing Jedi as was Motten himself, something he had proved on more than one occasion. He could tell when a Jedi was about to use the force, not through any sense but through body language, he knew all the Jedi killing tricks in the book and he'd learned most of them from experience, the rest he'd learned firsthand from the writer of that book.

He hadn't hunted too many Jedi recently however since there were so few around to hunt but during his time alongside Jaq Rand, the greatest of the Jedi hunters, he had learned how to kill a Jedi well enough that should he need to do so again, it would come back to him as easily as riding a bike would. Jaq had taught him everything about hunting Jedi and it had pained Motten greatly when Jaq had left the ranks of the Sith after being declared force sensitive, Motten's tutelage had ended by that stage and he had been called upon to hunt his former mentor, doing which he had spent many months to no avail.

A lot had happened since then though, Motten had grown stronger and smarter than ever, he regarded himself now more than the equal of Jaq then and it wasn't arrogance that made him think that. He'd worked so closely with Jaq that the two of them knew almost everything about each other, he'd known well Jaq's capabilities and although he'd been in awe of his mentor at the time, he realized now that his own abilities met or exceeded what Jaq could do then.

He'd always wanted the opportunity to hunt Jaq again, he'd felt that nothing else would be true test of his skills but seeing the former Jedi, Bastila Shan, fight the droids had made him think that perhaps she would be a test equal even to the great Jaq Rand. He certainly hoped she would, he hadn't had a challenge that had seemed truly worthy of his skills in many years, after some of the things he'd done he had begun to think that there was no such challenge and that he knew, was arrogance, a trap he could not allow himself to fall into.

With Bastila's ship completely out of sight he left his observation point and took off, his stealth unit making him completely invisible to those around him as his lack of any force presence had made him invisible to the former Jedi. He wasn't concerned about the head start he was allowing his target either since he'd managed to fit a tracking device on the vessel whilst Bastila had been fighting the droids, he would be able to follow the fighter from a safe distance and he had a pretty good idea of where they would be going anyway.

His own vessel was a similar size to Bastila's although better equipped, it was lower, wider and colored matt black, it was also fitted with a ship based stealth device known as a 'cloaking field' or just a 'cloak' which could make it invisible to the eye. Having left the vessel nearby, he quickly returned to it and boarded, he slipped into the sole operating station on the craft then activated his long range communication device, it would take a few moments to connect to his commanding officer he knew, the 'COPS' logo flashed on the screen as it did so. "Covert OPerationS – The secret right hand of the Republic Military' the screen proclaimed, Motten had sneered at it many times, now he just ignored it.

He used these moments to clarify his thoughts and plan what he was going to say about Bastila's movements, he knew that the commander didn't like long and drawn out explanations anymore than Motten liked to give them, which was not at all. He was normally a man of few words, preferring to save them for those he was torturing or murdering. His passion for his art was such that he never felt as inclined to say anything as when he was practicing it, the more bloody and drawn out that practice, the more passionate he felt.

The assassin hoped his master ordered him to kill Bastila this time, his current brief of mere observation was infuriating, many times he'd been tempted to just kill her anyway but so far he'd been able to restrain himself. Actually what he would like most was the opportunity to torture or interrogate Bastila, he liked nothing more than torture, to torture someone who had a high tolerance for pain and a strong will was even better and better still was to torture such a person who was extremely good looking. He imagined Bastila's voice going horse from screaming too much, her blood gushing out of her in rivers, running his tong along the side of her pretty face and tasting her hot, delicious blood mingled with her sweat and tears. It was a thought Motten found truly nirvanic.

--

The vast expanse of space stretched out in front of _Destiny's Redemption _literally forever Bastila knew, the galaxy itself only went a short distance in comparison although at the speed the ship was traveling it would still take several lifetimes to cover. The small fighter wasn't equipped with a hyperdrive though Lina had assured her that it was capable of reaching the unknown regions in reasonable time, Bastila just wasn't sure how she defined reasonable.

It wasn't that she minded, she ignored the fighter's surroundings and buried herself in her thoughts, the opportunity to clear her mind and contemplate her situation was welcome. She was sitting in the second seat, behind Lina, she understood it was the weapons control station, various scanning equipment was in front of her as well as the controls for the weapons themselves, Lina had said that the ship's turbo lasers and torpedoes, had there been any, could only be controlled from where Bastila sat. She wasn't paying attention to any of that either.

_Revan._

"So how many Sith have you killed?" Lina asked with some enthusiasm, Bastila had been consumed by her thoughts and took several moments to answer, the first few she spent deciding whether she actually would answer, presently she decided to humor the girl,

"That is not something I like to think about,"

"What do you mean? Surely killing an evil Sith is a good thing,"

A brief moment in contemplation of all those whose lives she had ended passed Bastila, she saw their bodies on the ground, many of them young and confused, following ideals they didn't quite believe in as she was. In some ways it was amusing that she always was the victor in battle, even when she didn't deserve to be, she knew that one day she would be called to answer for the death she had caused.

"Sith are not always evil,"

"What do you mean? Of course they are,"

If she closed her eyes Bastila could imagine she were talking to a younger version of herself, she remembered the outset of the Jedi civil war and the attack of the Sith, she had been so eager to fight them, so happy to kill and then she'd actually met them in battle and she'd realized that real fighting was nothing like the practice ring.

"Many Sith have no compassion for the sanctity of life but others, the ones who most often seem to end up being killed are just as normal as you and I, if anything their greatest fault would be susceptibility to the charisma and persuasiveness of certain people, or the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, things certainly not worth being killed for, to be forced to kill them anyway is almost as difficult as meeting that fate,"

"Oh… I never looked at it like that, is that why you didn't kill Revan?"

Bastila paused; the girl certainly had a talent for asking the most difficult of questions. She didn't know why she hadn't killed Revan when she'd had the chance, she vividly remembered the ashen smell of burning machinery and charred flesh, the shaking, slanted deck of the once mighty ship as it died around her. She knew full well the lives Revan had taken in the war, she had just seen him put his saber through a number of her fellow Jedi, good and brave Jedi all of them and she had felt his raw and terrifying power, yet as she crouched over the broken body of the Sith Lord, one who would have cut her down without hesitation had he been given the chance, she had felt no desire to kill him.

"One of the reasons," she answered finally, though really she knew it wasn't, Revan had been far from innocent,

"So, what's he like?.. Revan I mean,"

"Enigmatic," she replied, a summation of her knowledge on the subject,

"Gee, that sounds familiar, actually it reminds me of someone, tell me, are all Jedi like that?"

"I'm not Jedi and no,"

"So there are.. I mean were Jedi who were like normal people and you know had normal conversations?"

The question tripped on a nerve for Bastila, she'd grown up with the Jedi and although she'd often resented the masters, the Jedi had never the less been her family. Hearing her dead comrades being spoken of with no respect angered her and never one to stop or think before responding when flashes of anger hit, she answered more vehemently than she would otherwise have liked,

"Do you charge extra to stop asking irritating questions?! I don't think you know the true meaning of 'normal people' if you mean annoying little brats who seem to have achieved very little other than stealing spacecraft and…." At that point she managed to rein in her temper somewhat, responding in this fashion was certainly no way to respect the Jedi she realized, Lina took her pause as a queue to hit back,

"Well soooory little miss perfect! What exactly have you achieved anyway?! Ay?"

"I can't believe you're asking that,"

"Well I am! So what have you achieved that makes you so great!? Sure you can swing a lightsaber pretty well but so what! Revan can too and he saved the galaxy twice-"

"Once from himself!"

"Actually it was from _you_ if I remember the news broadcast correctly and _you_ can hardly blame him for becoming a Sith,"

"Blame him?! I was the one who stopped him, then I…"

_What? Showed him the path of light? It was the other way round really wasn't it; actually you didn't really stop him either, that was Malak._

Bastila took a deep breath, her encounter with Revan as the Dark Lord was something she still had nightmares about. Malak had played on it a lot when he had first turned her. Lina remained silent; she seemed to regret the argument as well.

_So what have you achieved Bastila?_

"Look, I don't think we need to debate this, I have certainly done things I regret, one of them is going off at you before, I apologize, I didn't mean it,"

Lina exhaled and spoke more evenly as well,

"It's alright, I guess I was being a bit of a pain, it's just it's not every day you can meet someone whose done the things you have, it's just, I don't know, I guess I feel a bit jealous, I mean, I've always wanted to go on some sort of adventure, see a bit of the galaxy.."

Bastila grinned slightly, she'd been the same once, a pity she hadn't realized how stupid she was.

"You would be far better off finding a job on a developed world; you seem to have skills that would serve you well-"

"Find a man, settle down, have kids, bla bla bla. You know that's not really something I aspire to, besides, no offence but that's not what you did either,"

It was a fair point Bastila knew but then again her life had never left her a lot of choice particularly once her battle meditation had manifested itself. She'd almost believed she could save the galaxy once, when all this had begun. Fool. The galaxy had always been beyond saving and if anyone could've, it would've been Revan, not her. All she could do was mind her own interests. Lina would make similar mistakes before she learned Bastila knew, she just hoped that by the time the girl got to where she was now, there was more of a life for her to salvage. She sensed that trying to argue the point with Lina would be futile, as it would've been with her when she had been young; she decided to change the subject.

"Describe what is beyond the rim, I have never actually been there,"

"Well it's not really one place, it's like a collection of old space stations and colonies built in asteroids, there's absolutely no law, no authorities, it's every man for himself, kind of like Paddasamp actually but worse in a way,"

"I see… and do you think it would be difficult to find someone… Revan, I mean"

"Depends how you go about it, if you ask the right people it might be easier than you think,"

Bastila nodded and didn't answer; Lina didn't ask any more questions either.

It took quite a time before the galaxy's rim became visible, Bastila didn't know how much time had passed although she suspected it would have run into days, she slept for long periods and used the force to heal her injuries. Unfortunately Lina didn't have any food aboard and so after a time they had both built up quite a hunger, Bastila tightened her belt, she was used to not eating very often, fortunately the fighter's systems included a device that produced drinking water.

The galactic rim in that part of space was the largest collection of asteroids she had ever seen. There were asteroids of all sizes, some larger than most planets although they were not planet shaped, others were smaller than their ship. When they were even closer, she noted that space in this part of the rim was filled with dust, no doubt the result of the many collisions that must have occurred; the dust seemed to reflect light and resulted in a sort of luminescence that made the entire region look surreal. When the fighter craft entered this area, the sound of the partials bouncing off the hull became almost deafening.

"Won't that damage the ship?" Bastila almost had to scream for Lina to hear her,

"No, there's a deflector field in place, they won't even leave marks, all we have to do is avoid the big ones,"

"Why is it so noisy?"

"Isn't it obvious? There's thousands of tiny particles banging into the hull,"

Somehow Bastila felt as though they were getting a bit of a poor deal but she didn't question further,

"This is where it gets interesting," Lina commented, Bastila had heard similar remarks on many occasions and had never grown to like them,

"Why is that?"

"The Republic has unmanned stations all across this area of space that are supposed to detect any vessels that pass into the unknown regions, it's supposed to be a way of stopping all the illegal things that people do there, the stations can detect almost anything unusual that passes through here,"

"How do we get past?"

"By deactivating all of the ship's systems, including life support and coasting through, we'll look just like any other piece of space junk floating around,"

"That sounds extremely hazardous to our health,"

"It is, I won't be able to run the air recirculation system until we get past, it'll get a bit stuffy after a while but as long as you relax and don't move or talk we'll be fine,"

"Why can you not bring some sort of compressed air storage device?"

"I usually do but this time I don't have it with me, being almost killed sometimes makes you a little forgetful,"

"I see, you are certain that there will be enough air to last us?"

"Well not completely certain but I think we should be okay,"

"What is the alternative?"

"Well, if we are detected by the Republic's monitoring station, a small unmanned craft called an Interceptor will be sent to investigate, they have more weapons and are faster than this ship but even if we destroy it, a Republic Battle Cruiser will probably be sent and getting in and out of the unknown regions will be very difficult for a while, that will piss a lot of people off and we don't really want to do that,"

"How would they know it was us?"

"They would know, trust me, it's happened once before, it was quite messy,"

"And there is no other alternative?"

"No, okay here we go, remember, don't talk or move until I turn the life support back on,"

The ship seemed to slow until it almost literally was at crawling speed and the noise on the hull became considerably less noticeable. Bastila laid back in her chair and relaxed as Lina shut down all the ships systems, not a single light was on anywhere on any of the control panels. If not for the belts holding them in their chairs, they would be floating all around the cockpit, not that there was much room. The craft's air seals were obviously sufficient to hold the pressure in and it seemed that the craft was insulated well enough to keep them warm although after some time Bastila felt noticeably colder. The ship continued to coast forward as its momentum carried it but in doing so its trajectory was changing slightly. Without the power of its own propulsion, Bastila knew, it was being affected by the gravity of the things around it, she hoped they wouldn't crash into anything but she presumed Lina had accounted for that possibility somehow.

After some time the craft did become stuffy as Lina had predicted, actually Bastila was finding it more and more difficult to breath, her body was getting very heavy and she was becoming tired as well as light headed, all signs that she was suffocating, she knew. Really, what they were doing was quite a stupid idea; just traveling in an asteroid field wasn't particularly bright, doing so without power or propulsion…

_What the hell are you doing Bastila?_

She became more and more concerned that Lina had miscalculated the amount of air they would need, especially when she found that everything around her seemed to be spinning uncontrollably and she realized she was losing consciousness. She attempted to suck a much needed breath of air in but there was none, some sort of panic state set in, well, not really a panic as much as her instincts attempting to ensure her survival but there was nothing she could really do. A strange collection of colors floated before her, she couldn't tell anything about her surroundings anymore and she realized that her oxygen starved brain was hallucinating and no longer able to tell her what was around her. She couldn't see or feel the craft, she had been in, or space, or anything, if Bastila had to guess she would've said she was floating amongst the pink and orange hued clouds on some utopian world, she felt free like a bird.

_I'm dieing…_

Suddenly she became aware of a terrible, burning pain in her lungs and chest, the instinct to breath forced her to inhale and surprisingly, she felt a little bit of air trickle into her lungs although the sensation was almost as painful as not having air. The cockpit of Lina's craft somewhat materialized through the haze and she found herself gripping her own neck with white knuckles, she immediately released herself and was able to breathe freely, her arms dropped onto her lap as though made of concrete. She felt woozy and disjointed, her muscles were screaming in pain and Bastila sensed that she was very lucky to be alive.

"Holy shit," Lina muttered, panting and rasping as well, a few more moments of silence passed as they both breathed heavily, Lina began switching on more of the ship's systems,

"That was incredibly foolish," Bastila spluttered when her ability to speak returned,

"Hey, we're alive aren't we and we got passed the monitoring stations without being detected, welcome to the unknown regions, by the way," Lina said "Next stop, Hades,"

"What is that?" Bastila asked, hopefully her travels with Lina would end in the near future, she didn't have a problem with her life being at risk, that happened all the time but she didn't like not being in control of the risk. She didn't feel as though there was any point in arguing about something that had already happened, she grinned wryly, in the past she would've done so with gusto, now she didn't care anymore, in fact part of her felt that dying wouldn't actually be a bad thing.

"It's the first place anyone goes in the unknown regions, you'll see when we get there," Lina answered cryptically as the craft sped up again and the irritating banging sound resumed at full volume.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note:

I have found this chapter incredibly difficult to write for some reason, I just never really had it at a stage where I was completely happy with it but rather than continuously rewriting it for another two weeks, or possibly longer, I have decided to just post it. Please leave a review and tell me what you thought.

Cheers.

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Five.

Crystal blue filled the normally lifeless void and it glowed like a sun kissed sky, the sapphire luminescence seemed beautiful beyond words but malevolent shadows haunted the distance, concealed behind ocean like haze. Asteroids and particles surrounded them like a sea of rock; some so close that they showed every hole and mark they had picked up during their infinite journey through space, some further off and some hardly visible in the hazy depths.

Actually, Bastila felt reminded of her journey to Manaan by what she was seeing; only the asteroids made the space around her seem any different from traveling under the ocean. Her companion and pilot, Lina, seemed comfortable enough in this region; Bastila could not help but feel a touch of nerve as their small craft weaved its way between the sometimes-massive chunks of rock.

Finally, out of the haze, a planet appeared but not like any she had ever seen before. From what she could tell it was a planet broken from its orbit, which drifted into the asteroid field; it did not seem to be rotating at all so she guessed it would not have its own gravity and it clearly had no atmosphere. How this might have come to be Bastila did not know, in fact she would have thought it impossible had she not seen it herself. It was a dead world, life through natural means could not possibly exist here, only Tatooine was in anyway comparable yet this was far deader than Tatooine, it's surface was even more colorless; a dull gray unlike the orangey red of the desert planet. She could see the remnants of continents and oceans on its surface although it was clear that a lot of time had passed since these had died.

"Hades," Lina said "First city of the unknown regions and its link to the Republic, the military would love to know where this place was,"

Bastila paused as some distant sense of loyalty made her consider informing the Republic of the colony's location, the moment passed quickly,

"Do you believe Revan will be here?"

"He'd be an idiot if he was, this is the central point of all the piracy and illegal trade, you can't hide here but maybe someone here will know where to start looking for him,"

They flew straight toward the barren world, which was quite an unusual sensation and as they did Bastila spotted what she guessed was their destination on the surface of the planet; a dome city, like many within the Republic although larger and more intricate than any Bastila had ever seen before. Constructed of a translucent material and held together by a frame of metal beams, one section of the dome was a force field but there was also an arm like structure extending from another part of it, clearly in place to allow medium sized ships to dock directly with the colony. Bastila looked quickly over the docked ships, of which there was a range of types and classes, hoping for a moment to see the _Ebon Hawk_ among them and she found herself disappointed when it was not. She chided herself for being naive and then remembered that the ship was not even Revan's anymore. _Fool._

Lina flew straight toward the force field, their craft was able to pass through it and into the city directly, Lina then gently put her bird down on a tarmac and shortly after that, the lid of their craft flipped open. Bastila began breathing the colony's dirty, smoky air, she felt a metallic taste on her tong and suddenly had the urge to spit. It seemed that everything about the city was dirty, even the brilliant sapphire blue of space was distorted into some sort of dull, lifeless glint.

She and Lina climbed out and she realized how stiff she was, she stretched her body and felt a little better; she had recovered completely from what injuries she had sustained previously although she still felt ravenously hungry, tired and weak from days of travel with no food or proper rest. She hoped that they would not get into any fights until she had a chance to recover, well; if they did then she would not be feeling very merciful.

Immediately after they had disembarked, heavy footsteps preceded the approach of a large, dark skinned man whose distinctive coat covered him from just below his nose. His concealed jaw and baldhead gave him a black Malak look, though he was shorter and more heavily built, his attire was somewhat different as well; a large black cloak, similar to the standard Sith cloak but without the hood and made from some sort of animal hide. It struck Bastila as a bizarre choice for a cloak; the material was heavy, inflexible and not particularly well insulated or even protective, actually it was downright primitive, the only redeeming feature was that it gave it's wearer a unique appearance but this hardly seemed justified. He carried a very large blaster cannon in his right hand, the weapon was probably half Bastila's weight although the effort did not seem to trouble his tree trunk like arms.

"Lina," he greeted the girl in a businesslike way, his voice was a deep baritone and held a 'don't mess with me' edge but Bastila wasn't intimidated by the man at all, she'd seen his type many times and often had to kill them, something she'd never found particularly difficult. She did note that he had no presence in the force, which made her wary; besides, she hardly wanted to cause unnecessary trouble. She decided she would let Lina deal with him for now,

"Long time no see, who's your friend?"

"Oh, no one," Lina answered and fished out a pile of notes from her pocket, Bastila saw some quite high value notes among the small pile "Here, I've got your credits,"

"Great," the man replied, he firstly inspected the cash he'd been given by eye, then he used a small scanner to verify the authenticity before continuing; "Looks all good to me babe, I guess this gives you about three days, have fun,"

With that the man turned and left, Lina pushed a button on the side of _Destiny's Redemption_ and the hatch closed, then a force field encased it,

"What was the payment for?" she asked Lina as they began to walk away from the craft,

"Duh, parking," the girl replied, "Nothing comes for free here and everything is negotiable, normally I'd take the cost out of my fee but since you didn't pay a fee…"

"I will pay a share," Bastila fished some credits from the pocket of her robe, she guessed her funds were getting quite low, unless she found Revan quickly she might need to look at earning some extra credits somehow, or stealing them.

"So, I guess we've both paid our ends of the deal now but do you want me to introduce you to some of my contacts? Help you find a place to stay?" Lina asked generously,

Bastila hesitated, she did not want to build up any sort of reliance on Lina, reliance in general was something she avoided if she could, particularly on people she did not know or for that matter trust. She also realized that knowing little about the unknown regions, let alone the colony itself, she would find it difficult to locate Revan without aid despite her Jedi skills.

"What would you charge for this?" she asked almost sarcastically, thinking of Lina's earlier declaration that nothing here would come for free; she was unable to pass up the opportunity to either prove Lina wrong or point out her lack of sincerity. Lina grinned, realizing the trap,

"Well I guess there are some things that come for free after all, I like you, you're interesting and besides, I don't have anything better to do right now, I'll take you to a friend of mine, if anyone here knows where Revan might be, it's him, come on,"

Lina broke into a brisk walk and pulled ahead, signaling that she was not going to allow the former Jedi any further choice but to accept her assistance, of course Bastila could have just walked off in another direction but despite her natural tendencies, she decided to relent on this occasion, at least for the time being. It did occur to her to wonder what made Lina so sure that she would follow, especially after Paddasamp, she then dismissed the thought; she was being paranoid again.

_But your paranoia has proven accurate so far._

Suppressing her misgivings, Bastila caught up to Lina and they walked in silence toward the central part of the colony where the tallest buildings were located, some almost reached the roof of the dome. She would have described Hades as medium sized; it did not cover a particularly large area but had a dense population, mostly of criminals, certainly none of them looked friendly. As she looked around, careful to keep her guard up, she decided that Lina and she were probably the only two full humans within the colony.

One thing that stood out to her was that the buildings were a lot less impoverished than Paddasamp although there seemed to be a lot more pollution. The dull glow that penetrated the dirty inner surface of the dome resulted in what was effectively a permanent day but the illumination did nothing to quell the sense unease the seemed to permeate the streets. Everyone looked at everyone else through wary somewhat hateful eyes; every hand was on or near a weapon of some sort, an insult no doubt on the tip of every tong.

Overall, it was not a place she enjoyed visiting.

Presently they arrived in the central region,

"This way," Lina directed, pointing to one of the largest buildings with a large illuminated sign designating it 'Erghyz'. Very loud noises and multicolored flashing lights emanated from many of the stories, Bastila would have wondered whether it was in fact a torture chamber of sorts had she not known that it was most likely some sort of night club; a loose description really since day and night clearly didn't exist on the starless colony.

They entered the building and the aforementioned flashing lights, which did so about five times too brightly to be safe, accosted Bastila's senses. Likewise the music was loud enough probably to level another city and the smells in the building were just as bad; Bastila could detect various forms of smoke but there were other smells she couldn't even identify.

Lina was somehow able to navigate the environment, Bastila had no idea how in fact she would have appreciated an E.V.A suit, short of that she had to rely on her force sense to keep track of Lina's location and follow through the building. She also needed to use the force to detect stray hands; she all but broke the arm of a man who made the mistake of reaching for somewhere that he should not, much to his surprise and horror. Apparently women did not enjoy the same level of respect there as elsewhere in the galaxy, how people were able to enjoy places like this, Bastila could not understand.

Lina lead her to a comparatively quiet area of the bar where the thumping noises, which for some reason counted as music, were not loud enough to shatter glass and the lighting was sufficient for Bastila to examine her surroundings; it certainly was a spartan place; steal was the primary, well, almost the exclusive material used in its construction. There was a dance area and in a separate room was more of a traditional bar area, there were also other side rooms with small bars and Pazzak tables as well as a large room with dancing girls. Bastila guessed that other floors would be similar, although the area she could see would take up at least two stories.

"Wait here," Lina said then walked off, she was away for some time during which Bastila needed to repel the attentions, violently on occasions, of a variety of 'suitors' some of whom offered her credits. She would probably prefer biting off her arm and selling it if she desperately needed money.

Finally, Lina returned and gestured for Bastila to follow her, they took a turbo lift up to another much quieter floor of private booths containing tables and chairs, Lina led them to a particular corner spot where they sat opposite each other. The floor was obviously a meeting place, Bastila imagined that business deals would often take place there since the relative quiet would allow it, hushed conversations and the odd games of Pazzak were underway in other booths.

"So do you come here a lot?" She asked Lina, her intense dislike of the place saturated her tone, Lina responded with a look that seemed to say 'don't be such an old women' but did not direct comment to that effect,

"Well actually, I used to work here," the slender, pretty girl answered, Bastila thought of the dancing girls "Not as a dancing girl," Lina hastily added, seeming to read her thoughts "I used to smuggle things back to the Republic for the owner of this bar,"

"I thought you worked for HK-47?"

"I did, I sort of double dipped if you know what I mean, once your HK-47 found out I'd been ripping him off he went psycho and tried to kill me, then locked me up, then you found me, but that's history now, the owner of this bar's name is Garetos Hain, he's also quite a wealthy crime lord, actually he and a few others control this colony, I know him quite well and he's agreed to meet me here, he'll be along shortly, you should be able to negotiate with him for information about Revan, if he has any,"

"Do you think that's likely? I wouldn't expect Revan to visit a place like this," Bastila thought on her own words for a second before she realized that perhaps they were wrong, in fact, she did not really know, she only hoped they were true. She thought she saw a slight flicker of a smirk on Lina's face but only for the briefest of moments,

"It's more possible than you'd think, Revan's not exactly the sort of man who can stay unnoticed in a place for very long, too many people know who he is and all useful information out here flows to the top, besides HK-47 said it saw Revan right? It has definitely been here before; this is where I met it,"

She supposed Lina's words made sense, although she doubted that Revan would allow himself to be noticed if he did not want to be.

"Is this colony part of the Sith?"

Lina looked as though Bastila had told a joke,

"The who? The Sith? There's no Sith out here, there are several crime lords who collectively control Hades and other places around here but no Sith,"

"There are Sith amongst the unknown regions somewhere, Revan has come out here to fight them but are extremely adept at hiding themselves it would seem,"

"There are no Sith out here anywhere, if there were we would've heard about them, we're criminals, information is our lives, we know whose out here and who isn't,"

At that point, Garetos Hain arrived with his three heavily armed bodyguards, he was a Twi'lek man and very clearly was one of some importance, or at least considered himself so. His clothing was obviously very expensive, stark contrast to the riff-raff who otherwise populated the bar and from what Bastila had seen, the planet. He held his face in the way of someone who considered themselves important, the corner of his lip snaking upward slightly, his eye holding a 'I'm better then you' glint. His skin was a dark orange color and he seemed to be past his middle ages, the wrinkles around his eyes gave him the look of someone who had been around but he certainly did not look frail at all, actually he appeared quite dangerous but again, Bastila was not intimidated.

He made room for himself at the circular table, Lina shuffled around to accommodate him while Bastila remained, despite that it would be more comfortable for Lina if she too shuffled around a little. The former Jedi took measure of the man, he too seemed to appraise her, although there was not much he could tell at this point, as always she was still wearing her baggy cloak and visor to prevent others recognizing her, Garetos quickly turned his attention to Lina.

"Lina," he greeted the young pilot with feigned enthusiasm though delivered in such a way that demanded Lina take him as genuine. He spoke in galactic standard, which was unusual for Twi'leks, Mission was the only other Twi'lek Bastila had met that did so, she wondered if Garetos too had grown up away from Ryloth. "Good to see you, it's so hard to find good pilots these days, I apologize for the predicament I put you in the last time we met, tell me, are you ready for more work?"

"I may be," Lina replied "I have a friend who is looking for information," Lina gestured toward Bastila, who sat silently, still covering most of her body with her cloak,

"A friend of Lina's is a friend of mine and I am always interested in opportunities for mutual benefit but friend I must ask that you show yourself,"

Pausing, as if to emphasize that this was a great imposition, Bastila then pulled back the hood of her cloak to reveal her head down to her neck, Garetos looked over her and for a second she thought he might ask her to take more off, in fact, he briefly looked as though he wanted her completely unclothed. Bastila had instantly disliked the man, now she thought even less of him, she felt in some ways regretful that she would not tell him whom she was; it would be quite amusing to see the look on his face as he realized that she could kill him more easily than she could shake his hand.

Garetos quickly resumed his professionalism, not for the purpose of good manners Bastila suspected, more in an attempt to prevent her from realizing she could influence him using certain means, little did he knew he had nothing to worry about.

"Please friend, your visor too, I find it difficult to speak to people when I can't see their eyes,"

"She needs it to see," Lina spoke for Bastila "She'd be blind without it,"

Asking someone to blind themselves would be like asking them to cut their own neck in a place such as Hades Bastila knew, far beyond the realms of politeness, even feigned manners such as those Garetos was displaying,

"I find that difficult to believe Lina, be careful, I hate being misled. That model of visor is not for replacing vision, only supplementing it; we all know that, tell me, what is going on here?" Garetos replied confidently,

"I had it modified," Bastila answered calmly "Other vision replacement equipment available was not to my liking,"

"That I also find hard to believe, surely a pair of bionic eyeballs would be far superior and more comfortable,"

"No, I prefer this, besides, bionic eyeballs would not help my particular problem,"

"That's rubbish, they could fit bionic eyeballs to a pile of dung these days, I sense deception here, are you wasting my time?"

"Do I look like I might a lot of credits?"

Garetos paused and seemed to grin slightly as he realized that he had lost the discussion, apparently this was a unique and unwanted experience for him. Bionic eyeballs were expensive to purchase and implant meaning that they were reasonably uncommon, modified visor solutions though often impractical were much cheaper, this made Bastila's explanation plausible.

"Alright, I'll believe you for now, so then, what is your name and what information do you need," he answered,

"My name is Jennifer Hale," Bastila replied,

"We want to know where someone is, we believe he is in this area of space somewhere," Lina added,

"Alright then, what is the person's name?"

"Revan," Bastila said calmly, this provoked quite a reaction from Garetos, his eyes widened and he leaned back in obvious surprise,

"Who hoo, Darth Revan? The Sith Lord come Jedi savior? Of course it is,"

"That's him," Lina answered,

"What are you, some sort of Jedi hopeful?"

"Actually I already know him, I am an acquaintance of his but that does not concern you, do you have any information on his whereabouts?" Bastila was beginning to feel as though it were unlikely that Garetos would have the information she wanted, she certainly would not believe him if he said he did, unless he presented her with some sort of proof.

"Revan has passed through here; I have means of contacting him." Garetos answered calmly "Of course more information won't come without a price,"

Bastila was beginning to think that few of the Sith interrogation techniques would be a better way to get information out of him, had it not been for Revan persuading her to follow the ways of the Jedi again she probably would not have hesitated,

"I won't be offering you anything unless I have proof of what you say,"

Garetos smirked,

"No you see that's not the way this works, let me make a few things clear for you; if you want anything from me, you'll need to make it worth my while, now there are things you can do for me in return to the information you seek, even if you don't have any credits but I'm not here to play Pazzak, if you have an offer to make then make it, otherwise you're wasting my time and I don't like having my time wasted,"

Words that made Bastila see red.

The bar owner leaned forward and steeped his fingers as he delivered his statement like a murderous preacher, he had complete confidence in his words and his control of the situation but he did not know that his life was on a knife-edge. During her short time as a Sith, the decision to kill had been as easy for Bastila as blinking, it was extremely liberating; whatever she needed to achieve she could do so in the most direct way possible, using whatever force was necessary. Jedi on the other hand were laden with responsibility and rules, the need to negotiate and the necessity of burying emotion.

On the day they had destroyed the Star Forge and defeated the Sith, Master Vandar had stood before the assembled crowd and declared her redeemed; she had felt at the time that it was the end, that it was redemption. Little had she known that Vandar's words signaled the beginning of a battle within her that would never be won and never lost.

She had misunderstood the darkside before experiencing it also; growing up she had always been told that the darkside was evil, horrible and that it never led to satisfaction. After becoming Sith she had realized that in fact the opposite was true; the darkside was liberation from the bounds of being Jedi, it was euphoric, the rush of power one got from standing over the body of a dead enemy, or even a dead friend was satisfying indeed but like a drug it fueled an unquenchable desire for more. Bastila had found the power to bring death en mass to be like leaving her mortal bounds and becoming a goddess. She had certainly enjoyed her swim in the dark pool but Revan had pulled her from it, he was one who knew a lot about the darkside.

She looked across at Garetos, his confident smirk fading as he began to wonder why she had not replied to his statement, perhaps wary despite her less than intimidating appearance, she looked at the guards, they were thugs, strong but slow and stupid; easy prey for her. Her body was like a coiled spring; her hand gripped the handle of her lightsaber, her finger hovered over the trigger, her teeth clenched. She could feel anger and hate boiling up, like a savage dog on a tenuous leash.

It was times like these she had trouble remembering what Revan had said to her that day on the Star Forge, why she'd agreed to turn her back on Malak and the Sith; _You won't Bastila because I love you and I believe in you, I trust you. Are you afraid to Love? _On those words, her destiny had hinged.

She felt the lightsaber in her hand and the force surrounding her, ready to do whatever she commanded and even to kill.

_I trust you._

She pulled the lightsaber out of her cloak and laid it on the table, exhaling as she did so; she felt the tension in her muscles melting. Ultimately, the darkside led only to death she knew and in hindsight, she did not think she could have sustained her hatefulness indefinitely anyway.

Garetos regarded her, a mixture of confusion and a hint of anger on his face but he said nothing as he turned his attention to her lightsaber,

"This is a Jedi lightsaber, the value of the parts and crystals it is equipped with will more than cover the cost of transporting me to Revan's location, if you can provide proof that you in fact know where he is," she said,

Garetos picked up and examined the lightsaber cautiously, he pushed the trigger and a gold beam extended out each end of the double bladed weapon, he pushed it again and passed it back to her after the beams had retracted,

"Yes, I believe you are right, lightsabers are very valuable these days but tell me, how did you get this?"

"I picked it off the body of a dead Jedi,"

"Is that so and do you know how to use it yourself?"

"Only in a crude fashion,"

"Okay then, so if I were to do this-"

Clearly acting off some sort of unseen gesture, one of Garetos guards produced a small blaster pistol and fired at her, Bastila's instinct and reactions were such that this could not happen before she activated the blade and deflected the shot back at him with all the practiced prescription and grace that she had accumulated over her years. The guard was hit square in the chest and collapsed, dead instantly, the other guards raised their weapons and would have opened fire as well had Garetos not held his hand up in a 'stop' gesture, he didn't so much as blink, Bastila realized she'd been made a fool,

"I see… the other two wouldn't've been much trouble either would they? So then; friend of Revan, skilled with lightsaber, brown hair, female – that makes you Bastila Shan, hmm, very interesting,"

Garetos continued to ponder but did not seem concerned at all about his dead bodyguard, strangely, his eyes seemed to flick toward Lina at regular intervals, Bastila wondered if he were thinking about what he could extract from her in return for her ship. He disgusted her more with everything he did though he had not yet done anything that warranted his death, if she were still a Jedi she may have ensured that some sort of justice be bought to him, today however that was not in her plan.

_And even if you were you would never have made it this far out, you would still be trying to save the Republic itself and failing. _

"You would not be wise to keep information from me," she challenged

"If you want proof that I am aware of Revan's location then I will arrange that," The bar owner looked up at one of his guards and nodded, the guard turned and left. Unsure of what exactly the guard had just been ordered to do, Bastila remained ready to deflect any more blaster shots "The good news for you is that you will get to keep your lightsaber; I'm going to have you put on a little show for me. You see, credits out here control everything and he who controls the credits is in control, I'm sure you've guessed that I'm a man who would like that and there wouldn't be a better money spinner out than the last Jedi Master in a fight to the death with the best the unknown regions can offer,"

"I'm not a Jedi Master," Bastila corrected him,

"I know that but it doesn't matter, it will be the biggest show in history, people will come from everywhere to watch as Bastila Shan, heroine of the republic, last of the Jedi takes on Solus!" Garetos replied enthusiastically, waving his arms around in the air and grinning broadly, his vision was unfocussed as he seemed to envisage a great show, Bastila was unimpressed, what sort of a name was 'Solus'?

"Who or what is that?" she asked,

Garetos grinned deviously,

"You'll find out soon enough my dear,"

At that point, the guard returned and handed Garetos a datapad, she could not see what was on it, Garetos read it thoughtfully,

"You'll be pleased to know I have contacted Revan," he said after a brief pause, then paused again, "He said to ask you..." Garetos paused yet again "…'Are you still afraid to love?',"

The question came off his tong with the force of a blow to the chest for Bastila. She felt her jaw slip open as her mind reeled, unable to maintain its control over her lower lip as it dealt to the fact that her life had just changed. There was absolutely know way he could know to ask her that unless he had spoken to Revan, that conversation had been held in complete privacy she was sure of it.

_Revan, please wait, I am coming to find you…or I will die trying._

"So then, do we have a deal?"

"Yes," Bastila answered without hesitation,

"Excellent, I'll even give you a room to stay in while I make arrangements and I'll call for you once these are complete, Lina, you're staying with me,"

"No, she will stay with me," Bastila stated, ripping herself from the numbness into which she had fallen,

"Fine, for now, your room is upstairs,"

"And you will tell me where Revan is after this is over," Bastila again stated,

Garetos grinned as if he knew something that she did not,

"Certainly," he replied as though the possibility were anything but,

"You had better," Bastila answered him dangerously, with that she then stood and with Lina left.


	6. Chapter 6

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Six.

"Whether we realize it or not, we all have fears buried within us, fears so great that if exposed they would devour us, consume us from the inside leaving only a shattered husk of a person. It's true because fear itself is not just being afraid of a particular situation or person, that's just a symptom, the essence of fear is deeper than that, the root cause of all fear is the deepest, most basic, most natural fear instinct, the part of you that tells you to fear. That is what Solus is; it is fear incarnate, that it why it cannot be beaten because when you fight Solus, you're not fighting something physical, you're fighting yourself; your own, core fears,"

"And what if I have no fear?"

"You're still only human Bastila, we all have fears, you just haven't figured yours out,"

Bastila felt a flicker of anger at the girl's arrogant presumption that she knew enough about her to make such an assessment, in fact she was briefly tempted to utilize her mastery of force choking by way of response. Her anger cooled as she realized that it would be a Sith response and one that was certainly not necessary, especially since Lina was behaving in a way similar to a younger version of Bastila herself. _Was I really that arrogant? _She asked herself, even as she thought about how Carth Onasi might answer that, _he would probably include a few very descriptive words_ she thought, her lips curled slightly.

Lina was busy with a device Bastila usually carried on her that scanned for spying equipment, for some reason the pilot had insisted on being the one to use it and Bastila had not argued. The room contained a proper bead and she felt very much in need of rest, the only thing that kept her from a full, deep sleep was her curiosity, as well as the fact that she did not feel at all comfortable sleeping on Hades. Actually, Bastila had not slept properly for years but was adept at sleeping while remaining alert, a skill common to Sith. The former Jedi assumed, as always, that she was being spied on and so did not give away any potentially damaging information, not that she would trust Lina with such information in any case.

Bastila certainly did not agree with what the girl had said, countless hours training on Dantooine had been devoted to shedding herself of all fear; she remembered meditating for so long that she had been unable to walk for a time afterward and then there were the sometimes, harsh training sessions with other students and masters. Even that was not to mention she had personally faced two of the most powerful Sith Lords of her generation and felt no fear on any of the occasions.

The only chance this Solus would really have of killing her would be if it could use the force, the former Jedi deducted. Lina would perhaps be unaware of whether it used the force or not, Bastila had sensed no force affinity from the girl although she had not been able to read Lina either. She wondered whether Lina was perhaps force sensitive and blocking Bastila's attempts to read her either consciously or unconsciously, then again there were those who were not force sensitive yet still unreadable; perhaps Lina was one of those. With a master's understanding of the force maybe Bastila would have been able to determine which was the case, not having that she had decided to just be wary of the girl.

"Where did it come from?" She finally asked, eyes closed yet aware of Lina's location and position,

"Some planet on the outer rim, uhh… Malachor V?"

Bastila's eyes opened, she looked across at the girl,

"The Trayus academy? That has been destroyed,"

"Solus has been around for a while, I think it was found before the end of the civil war. Death sport is a religion here, Solus has never been defeated, it's practically a god,"

Bastila closed her eyes and recalled Revan fighting for money in the undercity tournaments on Taris, she imagined perhaps that a similar system operated on Hades except that the match would probably end when one of the contestants died. Such brutality seemed fitting of the place; none of the inhabitants seemed to have a conscience, certainly not the ones she had observed during her brief travels in the colony.

"Has it ever fought a Jedi or a Sith before?"

"No but has it ever occurred to you that there are things in the galaxy beyond the control or influence of the force that are just as dangerous? Things can kill Jedi without using the force?"

Bastila wondered why Lina was so utterly convinced that she would loose to Solus, she did not believe there was anything she feared enough to consume her, as Lina had put it, particularly when she was aware that confronting her with her fears was a strategy Solus would use against her.

"Of course it has, has it ever occurred to you that I know how to fight a battle?"

"You're not listening; the force isn't the be all and end all, okay? If you knew what you're really up against-" Lina seemed to stop herself, as if she had said more then she meant,

"I am certainly aware that I am not invincible, I realize that my time will come but I'm not concerned about facing this Solus in battle, despite whatever powers it has, if I were afraid of it then half its work would be done for it-"

"Exactly!"

"Exactly what?"

"Look, I don't want to talk right now okay, I'll meet you back here later I just….I need some time to think,"

With that, Lina took off at something close to a run, leaving the former Jedi baffled, even she had never behaved that bizarrely, she was sure of it. Suspicion boiled up in her again, she wondered whether Garetos were perhaps manipulating Lina, or whether the pilot had her own goals and agenda. Her instinct told her the former was true. That crime lords never dealt honestly was something experience had taught her many times, Lina was intelligent but young, too young to be some sort of master manipulator.

_How young was Revan when he fought the Mandalorians? How young was he when he started the civil war?_ She shuddered. Revan was the definition of manipulation and he was only a few years older than she was, he had barely been out of his teens when he invaded the Republic. Lina was not much younger than that. _Lina is no Revan, no one is._

She thought about whether she should attempt to find out what was going on between Lina and Garetos but decided against it, Lina's problems were her own and if she were not prepared to discuss them, then Bastila would not let herself be concerned with them.

In any case, if Garetos failed to live up to his end of the deal Bastila resolved not to be restrained in her response; the darkside did have its uses after all.

--

A thin, sickly smile crept onto Motten's face as he listened to the audio feed of his target's conversation with her associate; he had earlier placed a monitoring device in their quarters, enabling him to listen in on their conversations. He was not particularly concerned that they would find it, even if they did; they were still in a city of criminals, plenty of other targets for suspicion.

His admiration of this Lina continued to grow, even though he still only admired her a little bit especially in comparison to Bastila. Bastila's narrow mindedness was a serious limitation; she assumed that only those strong in the force were a threat to Jedi, Motten himself was proof that this was not the case, he wondered what other assumptions she made. Bastila was smart yes and powerful but Motten was beginning to think he had finally discovered a weakness, one he hoped he would have the opportunity to exploit. Lina sounded like she would be a fine appetizer and it was unlikely that the C.O. would care at all what he did with her despite the man's bizarre insistence that Bastila remain alive.

The C.O.P.S. logo flashed on the small screen of his personal communication device signaling that he had an incoming communication, he pushed a button and the audio only transmission began. The C.O.'s paranoia of security breaches was extreme; one of the few things about him that Motten respected. The assassin would never voice his lack of respect however.

"Agent 1251," Motten answered, his voice far closer to the hissing of a snake than it was to most other people's voices,

"Mission control," the deep and powerful voice of his C.O. replied, it had strong undertones of self-confidence and indeed, Motten's C.O was an arrogant man but one not to be crossed "What is your status agent 1251?"

"I am monitoring the target as ordered; she is to fight a creature known as Solus in order to obtain information from the local crime lord." Motten kept his explanation as brief as he could. He used words sparsely as a rule, albeit one that did not apply when he was torturing.

"I see… and what do you know about this 'Solus'?"

"It is a creature with which I have personal experience; Revan created it during the civil war to turn Jedi to the darkside, it uses telepathy and hallucination in order to convince the subject they are facing a situation or individual from their past, or that they fear." He knew that the words were pathetically inadequate; words could not accurately describe what Solus really was.

In his mind's eye Motten was back at Trayus Academy during the civil war. He remembered standing silently and completely still, his body covered in black clothing soaked with blood, a wide, malevolent grin wrapped around his face as he watched his next victim being dragged into the interrogation chamber. Often his victims were captured Jedi, clawing desperately at the force suppression collars affixed to their necks, Jedi had an incredibly high tolerance for pain, higher even than a Sith assassin, an attribute Motten both respected and enjoyed. He remembered there were Jedi that even extreme amounts of torture could not break, Jedi so devoted to their code that nothing he could do would convince them to turn from it; these were Motten's favorite victims, for these were the ones on which Motten would inflict Solus.

He would watch in satisfaction as the captured Jedi screamed and writhed on the ground while Solus broke them, though he enjoyed physical torture very much, mental torture was another level, one that he did not have the expertise to inflict but that he enjoyed seeing nonetheless. He remembered their faces as they were bought in, grimly resistant, completely confident in their ability to resist the darkside, every time he had seen those faces he had smiled, every time he had enjoyed watching them as their wills collapsed, Solus had been so dangerous that even Motten avoided exposure to it.

That fool Malak had ordered the abandonment of the academy once in control, the bullish Sith Lord looked down on assassins and other less than blindingly obvious means of conquest. As far as Motten knew, Trayus had stood empty until Darth Traya had taken up residence there, emptiness disturbed only by the pirates who had looted the place. Motten imagined some entrepreneurial pirate stumbling across the creature one day, one incredibly resistant pirate it must have been, in fact, more likely it was a droid.

"Do you believe it will kill the target?"

Motten thought for a moment about Bastila's outburst after fighting HK-47, then about her closed mindedness, there was no doubt as far as he was concerned; she would be an easy victim for Solus, the creature had cracked much harder nuts than her. Motten found himself disappointed, although he would be able to watch Solus dismember the former Jedi's mind piece by piece, it seemed he would not have the opportunity to torture her himself. He would just have to take his frustrations out on Lina, he smiled slowly; the girl would not know what hit her. Perhaps even what was left of Bastila might provide some satisfaction, though if experience were anything to go by, little more would remain than the meat on her bones.

"Yes." He answered simply,

"You said it uses hallucination, will it cause her to lose her sanity?"

"It will."

"The target's life and sanity must be preserved; you are to intervene if necessary to ensure this occurs."

Motten was temporarily unable to reply, he felt anger and disgust stirring within him,

"Sir…. that isn't one of my normal… assignments,"

The commander paused,

"Did you not hear me agent?" he asked dangerously,

"I heard you sir," Motten replied without hesitation, at least he may later get the opportunity to interrogate her after all.

"Good, see that it is done and if you fail, save me the effort of sending another assassin after you,"

--

"Why have you come to see me in this way?"

Garetos sat back in the chair, looking seriously at the girl in front of him, the loud music that was characteristic of his Erghyz bar boomed in the background. Two burley guards stood near to their table keeping a silent lookout for anything that might interrupt the meeting and in particular for a certain former Jedi, whom they had orders to divert or delay and use any means necessary to prevent her from discovering the meeting.

"I found an audio monitoring device in our quarters," Lina answered venomously "That wouldn't have anything to do with you would it?"

Garetos was genuinely surprised,

"No, nothing to do with me, did she find out?"

"I was able to keep it a secret,"

"Well done, we don't want to make her suspicious, if she knew what she were really up against, she wouldn't still be here, where is she now?"

"Back in the room I think,"

"You have let her wander! What if she escapes!?"

"She's not going to run! I've spoken to her, she feels confident, I told her it has never fought a Jedi,"

Garetos chuckled,

"Partially true at least,"

"Are you spying on me Garetos?"

"No, of course not, I trust you will keep your end of this, remember the credits, we both stand to gain much here,"

"Then who?"

"I don't know, one of the others maybe? Having a Jedi in my pocket was bound to get out at some stage but maybe this is a good thing, the more publicity this battle gets the better,"

"This better not get out of hand,"

"It won't,"

With that, Lina stood and left the bar.

--

Bastila passed the time in relative peace; she gave herself a tour of Hades, none of which particularly impressed her. It reminded her a bit of Nar Shaddaa except it was dirtier and more overpopulated, in many ways similar to the lower city of Taris but even that seemed to be a class above Hades. The only part of the city she was actually interested to see was the inner part of its dome since she knew that even a small breach could easily result in the city's destruction, especially considering that the emergency response systems were probably quite inadequate. This being so, surely even the residents of Hades were intelligent enough to maintain at least that part of their city properly she reasoned, though she wanted to see anyway.

High metal shields protected the inner skin of the dome at ground level and only points that Bastila guessed allowed access for maintenance punctuated these. These access points were patrolled by guards, well 'guards' was a term used liberally since they were really just thugs who had obviously been told not to allow anyone close to the access points. Whom these thugs answered to was unclear as they were unwilling to share any information with Bastila when she enquired; nonetheless, it did seem that maintenance of the colony's protective outer skin occurred to at least some extent.

Garetos briefly visited her room while Bastila was resting, upon entering he actually seemed to assume that she was asleep and approached her in way he must have thought was stealthy. When Bastila's lightsaber ignited, the tip of the deadly glowing blade extending to inches from where he had frozen in place, just about piecing his chest, an amused grin spread across the crime lord's face,

"What were you going to do?" She asked him coldly, almost mockingly, her eyes still closed while her blade still pointed directly at his chest from where it rested in her palm,

"Why, rouse you of course," he replied in a tone that suggested otherwise, he attempted to side step the blade which followed his movements and remained pointing at his chest, Garetos then backed off. "I've come to tell you that a time has been set for your battle with Solus,"

Bastila remained silent and still.

"The Battle is set for forty two hours from now at the arena in the Auc'kland district," Bastila was familiar with the arena Garetos spoke of, she had already deducted that it was the likely venue for the battle, being the only arena in Hades. The Auc'kland district was on the opposite side of the city from the tarmac where Lina's fighter was parked. "There is a competitor's entrance at the side, be there early… and be ready,"

"I will," Bastila confidently informed him, Garetos flashed a grin,

"I doubt it,"

She spent much of the intervening two days relaxing, exercising and pondering what fears Solus might try to use against her. Her time being tortured by Malak had been one of the most fearful experiences of her life. Malak had been a twisted, devious man but he was dead and she knew it, there was no way she could fear him anymore, besides, her skills had progressed considerably since they had fought, she was confident that she would be able to beat him if they were to battle again.

Perhaps the most difficult fear to eliminate as far as Bastila knew was fear of loss, even Jedi who followed the code to the letter, such as she had been for a large part of her life, still often feared loosing their Master or Padawan. Bastila had never liked any of her Masters that much and until sent on the Star Forge mission, she had never been considered for the responsibility of training a Padawan either. Well, with hindsight she could see why that had been the case but still, fear of loss had never troubled her until she had fallen for Revan.

_But I can't fear loosing Revan anymore because I already have, I loved him and he left me, what will it do - Show me Revan's death? In some ways that would be satisfying. I have no enemies left to face, no friends left to lose, not even death to fear._

The time for the battle came quickly enough and Bastila arrived at the appointed place to realize that there was going to be quite a spectatorship at the event. The arena, which was located on the outer part of the colony, was a vast building but strangely only seemed to have a single story. Bastila suspected that perhaps more of it was underground.

Death matches it seemed were certainly the sport of choice among the people of the colony, actually, the event was huge just as Garetos had predicted. People were streaming in the main doors and enthusiasm seemed to be incredibly high, everyone seemed excited about the duel. As she walked about, concealing herself in her cloak so as not to be identified, Bastila overheard conversation after conversation between excited spectators, some of which were quite heated, all on whether or not a Jedi could beat Solus. The consensus seemed to be that she would loose. Humph, she would prove them wrong.

Bastila found her way around to the concealed side of the arena where the competitor's entrance was indeed located. She walked right past the two large guards who seemed to know who she was despite her disguise, immediately after the door were some steps which she descended down a number of floors to a bottom level. The interior was dark and dreary, the lighting was poor and the air smelled musty and damp, there was also a certain amount of death in the air, though it was nowhere near as bad as Paddasamp.

She gathered that she was now underneath the stands judging by the amount of noise she could hear. Some sort of curtain raising event seemed to be underway and she could hear cheers go up from the crowd every time one of the competitors was killed, or so she gathered. A gruff guard was waiting of the bottom of the stairs, he, she, or it, whichever was the case, grunted at her and gestured for her to follow, then led her down a narrow hallway to what seemed to be some sort of crude changing room before leaving her with another grunt. She took off her cloak and visor, stretched her muscles and rehearsed some of her moves. Truthfully, she was becoming slightly nervous at the prospect of the match, everyone on the colony seemed to think that Solus would be too much for her, maybe there was something in that. Perhaps though, that was just because they had seen it fight before, well they had not seen her fight yet and tonight they sure would.

It occurred to the former Jedi as she completed her warm up, just how much things had changed since that day on the Star Forge, it seemed so long ago now. Her hopes had been so high that day; she and Revan were going to have this wonderful future together and the galaxy would never be threatened again. She knew that she had been a fool. A stupid, naïve, fool. Some future it had turned out to be, if she had known then that years later she would be alone, on some sort of pirate planet, surrounded by people who wanted her dead and about to engage in a fight to the death, she would have laughed. What a pathetic life.

Another grunt interrupted her self-pity; she guessed it was time for her appearance in the ring.

_Hardly the right frame of mind at a time like this, Master Zhar must be turning in his grave. Hmph, he must have tuned in it enough by now to roll right out of it._

The guard was holding out some sort of headwear that resembled a crown of sorts; a plain band with single, small red dome on it that more like an electronic component than a jewel. The guard grunted and gestured for her to put it on her head, at first Bastila refused but the guard gave her a few angry grunts and repeated the gesture in a more violent fashion, she relented; it seemed a small sacrifice to keep the grunter happy, she could always remove it later.

She then followed the guard out to the musty corridor and then up it the opposite way than that from which she had come. The crowd noises became louder and louder until they were almost deafening, she heard the announcer giving her some sort of introduction, listing and greatly exaggerating her achievements, even adding some of Revan's for good measure, apparently she was responsible for ending the Mandalorian wars, _I didn't even fight in the Mandalorian wars, surely these fools know that. _The guard gave her a shove.

As she had gathered, she had indeed been under the stands and she exited into the ring through a tunnel in the stand itself. Spectators yelled at her and threw things at her as she passed them, some with quite a lot of spite, the crowd in general booed and hissed at her. They were thugs mostly, shabbily dressed, cripples a lot of them, she got the sense that occasions like this were the most exciting parts of their lives, very few humans were among the crowd that seemed populated by just about every other alien race. Bastila was tempted to react to their taunting but she decided against it, doing so would probably only rile them up more and she did not want to get really involved; she just wanted to get the fight over with and get out. The ring was basically square in shape, maybe ten meters on each side with a hard stone floor that was soaked in dried blood, there were still a few little body parts from the previous matches. Drainage surrounded the ring from which arose a musty stink.

The announcer began to talk up Solus, Bastila paid little notice as she knew that doing so would only increase her apprehension, instead she attuned herself to the force to see if she could detect any disturbances, such as a strong force user; she detected none.

She looked around again, the crowd numbered probably in the tens of thousands, a relatively small number though they were more than loud enough and she noted that the arena featured a roof, despite the zero chance of weather interference. There were large, projected images above her, pointing at the crowd; obviously, these allowed spectators who were too far away to see the arena properly a view of what was happening. It took Bastila a few moments to realize it but in fact, the view showed what she was seeing.

She touched the band on her head, shaking it slightly; the image above her went slightly fuzzy,

"Oh no! Don't touch that, competitor!" The announcer briefly interrupted his booming dribble over the loudspeaker to comment "We won't be able to see the action!"

Bastila was unsure whether she wanted the crowd seeing through her eyes and she thought about taking the band off. Her discomfort aside, it did seem that the easiest way out would be to leave it, kill Solus, then go. Removing the band would obviously cause some sort of disruption, which would only lengthen the time she would spend. As she was thinking, the announcer interrupted her thoughts;

"And now, without further delay, welcome the greatest warrior in the galaxy! Solus!"

Out into the ring walked Darth Malak.


	7. Chapter 7

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Seven.

For a moment, Bastila really was afraid.

Darth Malak glared at her in just the way she remembered him doing, for all that could be said about Malak; that he was a fool; that he was incapable of military command, he was still well and truly a being that one would never ever want to meet. His skill with the lightsaber had been undeniable, he had been the strongest of his generation and not by a small margin, Revan alone had been capable of defeating him and even Revan had admitted that his victory over Malak had very nearly not happened.

To Bastila, this was all suddenly very clear, whatever arrogant thoughts she'd had about being able to beat Malak had abruptly deserted her as she looked upon the man himself, exactly as she remembered him. He towered over her, a mountain of a man, the shadow he cast seemed to stretch forever and his eyes were like the blades of a lightsaber, they bored into her soul and impaled her with fear and self doubt. _This cannot possibly be!_ The part of her mind that still thought logically screamed at her; however, the rest of her had already decided that it was.

The announcer hastily exited the ring and declared the fight underway; Malak fixed her in his vision, his long lightsaber extended in his hand. Bastila could not really tell his expression because of his lack of jawbone but his eyes seemed to be burning with delight. The crowd melted away into nothing, there was only Malak and her, then he spoke, the same metallic growl that she remembered, she felt her soul shudder as the words left his, well, what qualified for his mouth.

"Bastila Shan…..ha ha ha ha….I see you were not expecting this little reunion,"

Crazy ideas flooded her mind as she searched for a way to explain what she was seeing, visions of Malak secretly escaping the Star Forge alive after somehow fooling Revan, perhaps even Revan had lied. Then, as quickly as it had begun, her moment of fear ended, realization dawned on her like a gentle morning sun.

_So this is what Lina meant, Malak is supposedly my greatest fear then, nice try Solus but you'll have to do better than that._

"These tricks won't work on me Solus," She regained her composure and fingered her own lightsaber,

"Hahahaha!" Malak chuckled menacingly "Won't they Bastila? I disagree, it seems they already are, you see, I am not really Malak, this is something within you, you have chosen this appearance Bastila to represent the dark thoughts that you hide in the deepest parts of your soul,"

"How do you claim to know my soul?" She challenged,

"I know all about you Bastila... and I know what it is that you fear the most."

"I fear nothing."

She activated her lightsaber and jumped at him in a single movement, chopping sideways with the deadly blade so as to separate his upper and lower body but Malak easily blocked her move with his own lightsaber. She perhaps was not surprised to feel their blades clash, thinking that maybe he had been purely an illusion but once contact occurred, she realized that she must have been facing some sort of physical recreation of Malak drawn somehow from her mind.

She launched into a series of aggressive attacking moves, deftly swinging her blade with all the skill and precision that she had accumulated over the years. With experience she had progressed considerably in the art of lightsaber combat and had become many times more skilled than she had been the last time she had fought Malak, in fact, at that point she was one of the most skilled operators of the weapon that lived. As the battle progressed however, she found Malak to be every bit her equal, every time she swung at him he met her lightsaber with his own, his red blade moving equally as fast as hers, blocking it at every strike, Malak did not even seem to be finding her attempts very troubling though he made no counter attacks.

She broke off her attack for the time being, realizing that the battle was something of a stalemate, she knew that if she were able to goad him into attacking, as Malak had often been known to do, then perhaps in doing so he would make an error. Disappointingly, Malak made no moves to attack once he had turned the last of her strikes away, instead he continued to stare at her before speaking again in his low, emotionless voice.

"Your greatest fear Bastila is your own inadequacy." His words stung of a distant truth, Bastila ignored them.

She attacked again with added ferocity, her yellow blade sweeping through the air in crisp, dexterous and well-practiced formations, she moved with aggression bordering on anger but again found no way passed Malak's defenses. It was just like the last time she had fought Malak, again she broke off the pointless attack, a layer of sweat forming on her brow.

"You can think of occasions throughout your entire life where you have fallen short of what was required or been incapable of completing a particular goal. Take 'looking after Revan' for instance, you well and truly failed at that, you ultimately failed as a Jedi and as a Sith, as well as essentially everything else you've ever tried to do. You'd been gifted with a strong affinity to the force, as well as your battle meditation ability, attributes that others would have killed for and yet those have not enabled you to achieve success."

The Sith Lord's eyes burned with passion as he spoke, Bastila remembered him saying similar things when he had captured her, it had taken her a long time to believe him then and even though his words were like a damp towel on her soul, she refused to allow herself to believe him, despite the truthfulness she saw in them.

"Your words mean nothing to me Solus," she replied,

She summoned the force and blasted him with a force wave then followed up with force lightning, a black power she'd picked up during her time as a Sith. Her hope was that she might somehow catch the real Solus with the wide range attacks, or reveal whatever means it was using to conceal itself. Malak was unaffected by either of her attacks, he used his lightsaber to absorb the force lightning with confident ease, it seemed as though Solus was also unaffected, she began to wonder if it was actually present, or if it even had a physical form. She had heard of beings composed entirely of energy although she had never seen one or knew whether they would be even visible to her,

"You are a fool Bastila, you have given away every chance you had for successes, even when it was dropped right into your hands by my actions in betraying Revan, you still failed to kill him. Even when he helped you to redeem yourself for your earlier failure to resist the dark side, you still failed to hang onto this, to hang on to Revan, you failed to read the signs, you failed to anticipate his actions even though it should have been obvious to you. You are pathetic Bastila, a failure, a fool."

Bastila stood for a few moments, gasping for breath as she thought for a minute about what to do next, the respite gave her a chance to ponder her situation and invariably Malak's words sunk in to her thoughts,

_I must not listen to these lies._

"Remember that I'm not really Malak, I'm you, this has all come from within you Bastila, thoughts that you hide from, thoughts that you bury. You truly know that you are a failure, you have hidden that truth from yourself Bastila but no more, realize it Bastila, know that it is true….. you are a failure."

--

High above the battle, perched amongst the scaffolding that supported the weight of the roof, Motten watched as his target did battle with the Solus creature, from his position he had a view of one of the giant screens which showed Bastila's perspective and a bird's eye view of the actual battle itself. He actually found it amusing to watch while pretending he did not know what was really happening, from that perspective it seemed as though Bastila was fighting against thin air - and loosing.

To watch the screen made more sense but he knew that in actuality the Sith Lord Malak existed no further than in her mind, embodied by the hallucinations caused by Solus. He had seen Jedi he tortured do that before, he knew that as long as they actually believed they were fighting, their mind would make it real to them.

Resting in his hands and pointed directly at Solus was a high-tech sniper-blaster riffle of which Motten was a very skilled operator. Although most of his assassinations in the past had been of Jedi, against whom the riffle was useless as they generally were able to anticipate and deflect its shots, on the occasions when he had assassinated non-Jedi targets, the riffle had proved more than handy. He had determined that the best way of achieving his current mission was to use the long range weapon on Solus, since short range options were ineffective against the creature and its ability to hide itself from the minds of anyone nearby.

Motten was loathe to destroy the creature, to him it was the perfect weapon, more deadly than any vibroblade, lightsaber, blaster pistol or scalpel. He had seen it mutilate minds, cut down even the very strongest willed Jedi in a way that no other sort of torture could and then reduce them to sniveling, quivering husks, pathetic shells of their former selves. To him the creature was beautiful; he would even go so far as to say that perhaps he loved the creature for what it could do and now he was tasked with destroying it.

_Bastila will pay for this, _he determined as he placed Solus in the cross hairs of his scope, paying careful attention to Bastila's state, at the same time allowing Solus as much of one last triumph as he dared while preventing it from destroying the former Jedi completely. This would mean that when Motten finally did have his way with Bastila - he had decided that whatever happened, he would make sure to take an opportunity for this at some stage – she would be fragile and not as resilient as she otherwise would have been. This disappointed him since it meant less torture would be required but no matter, he would finish what Solus started and take revenge on its behalf. Thoughts of what he would do to her warmed him in what was otherwise the darkest moments of his life, he imagined what terrible pain she would be in as he exacted the price of Solus's death from her body and soul. Her tormented screams echoed inside his head.

_It's a shame I can't hear what Malak is saying, _he thought as he watched Bastila's hallucination of the dead Sith Lord on the screen, lips moving but no sound was emitted, this remained completely in Bastila's imagination. Regardless, it did not worry him; he would just have to take more time breaking her.

--

_No! This is not Malak! These are lies!_

"Are they Bastila? Examine them yourself; you will see the truth as Revan did,"

"You know nothing about Revan," she swore through gritted teeth, 'Malak' had repelled every attempt she had made to kill him and so she no longer bothered. He did not attack her with his own lightsaber, further proof that he did not exist, something she may have deducted had she thought about it at all.

Part of her was still screaming at her, begging her to examine the facts and use logic to determine what was actually happening but increasingly, this part of her went ignored. Her mind went circles about what to do, she could not kill 'Malak', she did not know whether she needed to in order to find and stop Solus, she did not even know if that was possible, nothing about her situation made sense and she could not see a possible way out of it.

"Yes but _you_ do Bastila, you know that when Revan says something he tends to be correct, what do you think his absence from your life says?"

_I can no longer listen to these words, or else they will poison me._

"You can try Bastila but remember; these words come from within you, they are your own thoughts and you can no sooner ignore them than you can deny them."

_Get out of my head!_

"Fool! I _am_ your head!"

--

Motten watched and he knew that the inevitable was taking place; Bastila seemed to have all but given up. Oddly, the crowd seemed to be enjoying the display immensely despite the lack of any sort of action, jeering and yelling filled the stadium, Motten knew Solus would have deafened Bastila to it.

He had the creature firmly within the sights of his riffle, knowing that the former Jedi would not last much longer, his finger rested on the trigger, any point from then would be a good time to end it, still, he wanted to give Solus as long as possible and he truly was loathe to kill it.

--

"You will never find Revan Bastila and you know it, deep in your soul you know it. Revan will not be found if he does not want to be and if he wanted you to find him, why would he have left you? You will spend the remainder of your pathetic life alone with your failures Bastila,"

She fell to her knees.

_It's true, it's all true! What chance do I really have of finding Revan, he is many times more ingenious than me._

She felt like she was looking in a mirror and disliking what she saw, she knew that as 'Malak' had said, everything he was had been drawn from her mind, including his words which echoed true within her, even though she outwardly denied them.

Her lightsaber dropped out of her grip, she felt a stinging in her eyes as salty tears began dribbling down her checks, she almost didn't notice her lightsaber float up into the air, into the hands of 'Malak' from her perspective. The yellow blades ignited like a sudden fire.

--

Motten almost could not believe what he was seeing, he had never seen Solus manipulate a Jedi into using the force to use their _own _lightsaber against them, well, he knew why that was; all the Jedi he'd seen Solus manipulate had force suppression collars on at the time.

He watched speechless as the burning yellow lightsaber floated above Bastila, suspended in the air by her own mastery of the force, even if she were not aware that she was doing it. Motten glanced at the screen and although he couldn't see what was happening too well since Bastila was not even looking at Malak, he gathered that she was unaware that her hallucination was holding a real lightsaber and seemed intent on using it to kill her. If she was aware then clearly she did not have the will to stop it, the former Jedi was broken he knew, Solus had taken control of her mind, it was using her force powers to do what Solus did; destroy.

_My gods… that creature is brilliant… how can I possibly kill it!?_

--

"You have always known you were inadequate haven't you Bastila, you know that was why your parents sent you away,"

_It was…my belief at the time, it made me determined… to show them, it also made me hate Mother… but I have since found out the truth!_

"Is it really Bastila? Do you truly believe this?"

_I… I don't know… no! I will not let you do this to me!_

"Ah… the overconfidence with which you always have acted, others believe this is because you are arrogant but you know that really, your overconfidence is just a mask for your fear of inadequacy. Revan figured this out too didn't he!"

_Revan… there is nothing he can't figure out._

"Revan would always have found the Star Forge without you, in the end you even served Malak and made things more difficult for him, the thousands of deaths you caused at the battle of Lehon are on your shoulders Bastila, your battle meditation killed them."

_No…I… I tried…No… these are lies…this is not true!_

"What you have been telling yourself are the true lies Bastila, the way you have been justifying to yourself what you know to be your own inadequacy, telling yourself 'It wasn't my fault' face the truth Bastila, it was your fault!"

_I… I have done everything I can… _

"Everything you could do was never enough Bastila - you were never good enough! Not to save the Jedi, not to destroy the Triumvirate, not even to stop the Republic from becoming corrupt. You are fool Bastila, a blind, pathetic fool!"

_Stop…_

_You failed! _

_Please…_

_You are weak!_

_No…_

_You are a fool!_

_I…_

_Face it!_

_You…_

_I…_

_I… failed! I am a fool…a worthless, pathetic fool!_

--

He was paralyzed,

_No... I can't do it…I must_

Lining the creature up in his sights again he slowly, regretfully squeezed the trigger.

Nothing.

Motten's heart stopped, he hastily examined the weapon even though he knew that it was too late, he quickly discovered that a faulty power unit was the cause of the problem, he had checked the power unit before the mission and it had still failed him. Unconsciously he swore that he would never rely on any weapon other than his vibroblades again, well, those and a few others but whether they were weapons or tools was another question. Consciously he reached as fast as he could for his spare unit then hurriedly attempted to swap them even though he knew that he would never get it done fast enough. Bastila was doomed.

--

There were often points in people's lives that seemed to set the course of their destiny, decisions upon which everything they ever did from then on hinged. It seemed that time slowed for Bastila, whether this was because of the force somehow, or just a part of her imagination, she would never know.

In slow motion, she looked up and saw her nemesis holding the lightsaber over her, slowly bringing it down on an arc that would intercept her neck, the golden beam that had protected her for most of her life now poised to end it.

In slow motion, she became aware of the hostile crowd, jeering and yelling, lusting for blood, her blood.

_Let them have it, I no longer want to be part of this hateful galaxy._

That was when it happened, the maelstrom of mixed up, crazy thoughts that had become her mind and soul was penetrated by a single command, it seemed to echo inside her, pervading the deepest points of her consciousness.

_Stop!_

Bastila's eyes flicked open and it was gone but the instant during which she had felt it was enough. The instant during which she had felt him.

A force bond was a strange thing, she doubted that anyone had ever understood them fully; she understood that in the beginning, memories and thoughts had passed between Revan and she easily and that since then that had seemed to slowly decline until it ceased to exist. Until that moment.

Suddenly she was alive, suddenly she could breath, she felt like the shackles that had bound her soul had been broken. Her mind was still awash with chaos and fear but a single unifying thought gave her the strength to brush that aside, from that point on she forgot her previous worries and focused on a single goal.

_He is alive, he knows I am here; he wants me to go on._

Her lightsaber clattered noisily to the ground and she realized in that instant that Malak had never been there, he had never held the lightsaber above her, she also realized something else.

Not pausing, she almost flew to her feet, scooped up the weapon and jumped then rolled several meters before bring it down. That move was like breaking out of a glass prison to Bastila, suddenly she became aware of everything again, in particular the crowd, although a deathly, shocked hush had fallen over them.

She looked at the ground before her and saw the smudged remains of some sort of truncated worm like creature, it was approximately the size of her lower leg, it seemed to have no head or face and only a large bulge differentiated one end of it from the other. She had sliced the bulge directly in half, clearly killing the creature, she did not linger on it, the crowd was still silent but somehow Bastila sensed that things were about to change and that she did not want to be around when that happened. She ran.

--

He knew what he had just seen was impossible but it had happened anyway, his mind reeled and his body lay inert, unable to act as he struggled to come to grips with what he had just seen.

… ………_How?_

He blinked and the thought was gone, filed away for future examination. He collected his whit and planned his next move, he watched as seconds after Bastila's hasty exit an explosion of fury erupted amongst the spectators, blasters were unleashed and the riotous mob had begun to destroy the stadium, to Motten it seemed unlikely they would stop with that. Some of them had already began storming out the stadium's doors, no doubt to begin a path of wanton destruction that could easily consume the entire colony, a colony that relied on the integrity of it's relatively fragile dome to protect it from the void.

Suddenly Hades did not seem like a good place to be.

--

Bastila all but flew out of the stadium, not even stopping to collect her robe or visor; she had made it out of the competitor's entrance by the time the silence within the stadium had abruptly ended. She kept running as fast as she could and she was halfway down the road by the time furious spectators began spewing from the stadium's doors. A single thought unified the chaos in her mind.

_I must find Revan._

Few times in her life had she ever ran as fast for as long as she did then and all the previous times she had been a lot younger. She was heavily fatigued by the time she arrived at Erghyz, fortunately the force allowed her to recover much of her energy.

Only staff occupied the bar at that stage and when she entered, three bodyguards/bouncers attacked her straight away, Bastila easily avoided their clumsy moves before cutting them down with her lightsaber. The man behind the bar, the sole remaining staff member present, had become terrified of her by that point and he dashed toward the next room. Bastila was easily fast enough to catch him but instead she knocked him over with the force and then pounced the distance between them, picked him up, held his shirt but used the force and pinned him against the wall above her,

"Where is Garetos!?" She demanded furiously,

"Up- Upstairs! The top floor! Please!" the guard pointed desperately toward the lift in the center of the room and then began struggling for his life, she allowed him to escape, having the information that she required and then hastily made her way toward the repulsorlift.

Garetos was indeed in the room on the highest floor and so was Lina. The bar owner was pacing and seemed to be in a state of desperation, Lina was sitting in a corner. The room itself, obviously Garetos' private quarters, featured lavish decorations and a large bay window that looked out over a section of the colony.

"You!" Garetos yelled when she entered "What the hell have you done!? I'm finished!! You.. you… I'm going to kill you!!"

The crime lord produced a knife and jumped at her, she used her force powers to send him flying in the opposite direction, he slammed heavily into the wall, breaking a case of expensive glassware as he did so, the entire display shattered and glass flew everywhere, Bastila shielded herself with the force. Lina held up her arms to protect herself from the shrapnel but after a few moments had blood running from minor punctures all over her body, it didn't seem to bother her. Garetos struggled to lift himself but covered in blood and glass, he could barely move,

"Where is Revan!" Bastila demanded, Garetos saw an almost primal rage in her eyes, the crime seemed to realize he was doomed and surrendered, apparently with the desire to cause as much to the ones who had destroyed him as he could,

"I have no idea!" he shouted between chuckles and coughs of blood, the betrayal sent Bastila over the edge, she felt raw fury building up inside her, not the sort of fury one might normally experience, this was white hot, blinding fury that consumed her last shreds of self-control.

"You fool!" Garetos shouted as though he were telling history's funniest joke "I've never even met Revan, never spoke to him, I don't know anything about him! I-"

Garetos voice ceased as he felt his neck being crushed, Bastila held her hand out, calling on the darkside to constrict the Twi'lek's airway, the power of the dark willingly and gratefully returned to her. He made a few gurgling noises and his face began to redden as the oxygen supply to his head was cut, his eyes budged and the veins on his forehead were expanding, he gripped his neck and struggled in a futile, instinctive attempt to release himself. Somehow, despite his situation he managed to push out a few last words, strangled and barely audible gasps that Bastila was only just able to understand,

"It was Lina… she gets inside your head…"

Bastila released the now dead Garetos and his limp body slumped, she looked on him and shock at the realization of what she had just done hit her like a bucket of icy water, she staggered back as she looked at the limp form of the Twi'lek she had just killed. It was not that she regretted Garetos' death, he had certainly done enough to earn it, it was the fact that she had killed in cold blood, ended his life despite the fact that it had been completely unnecessary. Bastila hadn't considered herself a Jedi for a long time but the thought of needlessly killing still sickened her.

_Force… what have I done?!_

The realization shook her deeply, jarring her into thought, she felt her sanity begin to return and her thoughts begin to organize themselves, she forced herself to stay calm and control herself, _you didn't intend to kill, you just didn't realize what you were doing, _she consoled herself. Somehow, her consolation seemed hollow but she vowed to prevent a repeat of her killing.

It was then that she became aware of her surroundings once more, as her consciousness began to take control of her behavior, she felt the force surrounding her, she became aware of the anarchy that had engulfed the colony and indeed, the room she was standing in afforded a commanding view through the bay window. Fires had begun across various parts of the city, blaster fire was evident, Bastila wondered just how long it would be until one or the other penetrated the dome.

Lina stood before the window, her back to Bastila, shoulders slumped as if the burning of the colony was also the burning of her dreams,

_Force, she was behind all of this, _Bastila realized, her time with Lina playing through her mind, _it was her intention to bring me here all along… Garetos was her puppet… _

"Lina," She said calmly, after a pause and several deep breaths as well as a straightening of her back and having reached for her lightsaber "What is going on here?"

For a long time, Lina remained silent and still, her long, straight platinum hair flowed down her back, it had taken a reddish hue from the fires that were burning in the colony. Then finally Lina turned and as she did so, Bastila saw her for the first time; she saw that Lina was not a human female at all, she was a creature that looked rather a lot like Solus.

She spoke through a mouth that was a slit in the middle of the bulge that seemed to be her head, like Solus, she had no eyes and no face but she did have worm like arms and legs. Her voice was strangled and barely understandable,

"Bastila, Bastila, Bastila… my brother, Solus, was right about you… you are a fool,"


	8. Chapter 8

Author's note:

Hi everyone, this chapter has been very challenging and I still am not very happy with the first part of it but I've worked on it for long enough and it's time to move on. I hope this makes sense, I am thinking of Hades as more of a planetoid or moon than an actual planet and thus it does not attract an atmosphere. It obviously has artificial gravity in the colony.

As always, your thoughts would be very much appreciated, my thanks go to bluefalcon1138 who has reviewed most of my chapters and Elwin Ransom who provided a very insightful review of chapter 3.

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Eight.

The buildings of Hades proved remarkably combustible and though the fires had been slow to start, they had since grown to a point where they raged furiously. Obsidian colored smoke collected near the apex of the domed city, slowly descending over Hades as it grew, threatening to smother the colony and all in it like a thick, black curtain of death. Blaster fire and explosions completed the gruesome picture, one that would have been awe-inspiring had it been merely that.

Lina stood watching the anarchy as it played out beyond the large bay window, the pace of the colony's decline almost unbelievable. Her small frame was composed of several arm length pieces making her look a lot like a stick figure. A bulge that looked something like a head was detailed only with a slit like mouth, a very different form to the slender human girl Bastila had previously believed she was. Neither the creature nor the former Jedi moved or spoke, only by the occasional low rumble from the colony and orange hue given off by the dancing flames punctuated the silent stillness of the room.

Bastila felt as though at some point during the preceding week she had passed into a strange alternate dimension where the rules defining reality no longer existed. Actually, she did not feel as though she had, she knew that she had and the worrying part was that she had no idea where reality ended and fantasy began. The extent of Lina's manipulations continued to dawn on her, each shocking revelation more nauseating than the last and each a further decent into the black hole of insanity.

_Her appearance was an illusion created in my mind... A hallucination just as Malak was…_

She began to wonder just what other ways Lina had been using her abilities since Bastila had met her, abilities that clearly matched or even exceeded those of Solus. She thought of all the decisions she had made since Nar Shaddaa, none of them without Lina's influence.

_Did I really fight and destroy HK-47? Was it even there? If it were what were its intentions?_

She realized that although the assassin droid had been hostile toward Lina, it had not demonstrated the same intent toward her until she had attacked it. Even then, dressed as she had been intentionally to disguise herself, had it even recognized her?

_It was on a mission from Revan… A mission to kill Lina… It was looking for me…_

In all probability, the assassin droid would have taken her to Revan or at least given her some clue to where he might be. She felt a new wave of nausea wash over her as she replayed the events in her mind, things that seemed so obvious to her as she did so had gone completely ignored at the time.

_But I didn't even ask it, I didn't even think to ask it… Lina knew it was my best chance to find Revan, that's why she had me destroy it…_

Even more sickening was the possibility that HK-47 had not even been there and that the entire series of events had been some hallucination Lina had cooked up to gain her trust. That made her wonder what other hallucinations Lina had projected on her. Had the entire journey been a hallucination?

_Have I even left Nar Shaddaa? Am lying in some ditch somewhere quivering like some brain fried spice user? Is all this just some dilution? How will I ever know?_

Bastila realized that could not trust anything she had seen, heard or decided since leaving Nar Shaddaa. The planet of Paddasamp and the colony of Hades could easily not exist as Lina herself didn't, well, Lina the human didn't, _but then, how do I know Lina the creature does?_

"I haven't overused my abilities on you Bastila."

_I can't trust anything she says._

"Trust me or don't trust me. The choice is yours. However, I suspect that if you choose not to trust me then you may find out too late that what you are seeing is in fact reality, this colony doesn't have much longer."

_She's manipulating me again, this isn't really happening, the colony is fine, there are no fires there. If the colony even exists that is, which I doubt._

"Take a breath Bastila."

Bastila took a deep breath and choked, she realized for the first time that fumes given off by the fires had obviously infected the air in the colony. She felt as though she were breathing acid, as if the air was ripping pieces of her airway off with each labored breath. There seemed to be little or no oxygen on offer, even standing had become a strenuous effort. She staggered and struggled to balance herself as her mind reconnected with her body, which told her that she was suffocating. She launched into a coughing fit and eventually collapsed to her knees, gasping and struggling for breath, the burning in her throat intensified. The room was like an oven, Bastila was soaked in sweat.

The nausea she had been feeling had not come from her thoughts, it had come from the fumes. Bastila suddenly regretted having left her cloak at the stadium, remembering that her breath mask had been in one of its pockets. Her tunic only allowed a bare minimum of items in its much smaller pockets.

_I can't be imagining this,_ she realized as she felt herself becoming lightheaded, everything was just too real for it to be another part of her imagination, _she must be right._

"A wise choice, now you should make another to leave here immediately,"

Bastila hauled herself up and almost did exactly that but stopped as she realized that she had neither a destination nor a means of travel,

"You have the activation key for _Destiny's Redemption _in your pocket."

_How is that possible? _She remembered human Lina slipping the small device into her own pocket as they had left the craft, _pockets that didn't exist_. Her hand slipped inside the pocket on her tunic and felt the cool metal of the activation device, Bastila did not quite understand how she'd come to possess it but she did not care. She turned, ready to leave but then suddenly froze.

It occurred to her just how perfectly suited Solus and Lina were for manipulating and killing Jedi. Their abilities were unrelated to the force and invisible to those who were sensitive to it, they both had been able to manipulate and affect her with practiced ease. Once she had thought about this as well as who would want to do such a thing and might be smart enough to create such an effective weapon, a connection occurred. It was certainly quite a jump but as she thought about it, things seemed to click into place in a way that made perfect sense. Bastila knew it was not as ridicules a notion as it had first seemed.

The former Jedi slowly turned and faced the Lina creature once again, it standing before a frame of orange and black was an image that would forever remain in her nightmares.

"What do you know of Revan?" she asked coldly.

Lina was silent for a few moments,

"So, you have figured it out. Perhaps you are not a fool after all. I seem to have made a habit of underestimating you Bastila. Yes, Revan created me, programmed my D.N.A and grew me like a vegetable. It's unfortunate for Revan, I suppose, that he now is that which I am programmed to destroy."

"What do you mean? Revan is Jedi?"

"Of course he is, in the deepest parts of his soul he has always been but you knew that Bastila, that is why when you saw into his soul on the bridge of that ship, you didn't kill him. Revan has only one weakness… you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you and he are inextricably linked, that is why I tried to destroy you Bastila, not just kill you but utterly destroy you. I thought Solus would do it but I was wrong, I underestimated the force. Now I have lost everything, there is no way forward, death is my release."

_Her puppet Garetos, Solus; her strike weapon, Hades; her empire, she must think it easier to let herself die._

"You see it Bastila, your defeat of me is complete. My life work burns with this colony and with my brother dead, my protection is gone. I was always jealous of you Bastila, it was you who occupied Revan's thoughts, you; an imperfect, foolish human, I see now why that was; you are more perfect than I ever was, it is your imperfections that make you perfect Bastila. You are an unknown quantity, you are adaptable, capable of change, capable of redemption even though you do not quite believe it but that's just it; for you and your kind, belief defines your existence, I only wish the same was true for me. The galaxy has moved beyond me."

"You could change,"

"No Bastila, I am what I am and I can never change. You can and have, and you continue to do so, that is why you are the victor here. Go now, leave me to my fate."

"Where is Revan?"

"The colony of Derant, the co-ordinates are in the navicomputer of _Destiny's Redemption._"

A large explosion occurred within the burning colony, it was clearly visible through the window but the obviously thick, transparent material cut off most of the sound. Bastila expected the explosion to breach the dome but it did not, by what fortune they had been saved, she did not know but she did not expect it would last. She needed to leave the colony.

"Go now Bastila, I wish you luck. I hope that what you find does not destroy you."

The former Jedi hesitated for just a second longer as she experienced a reluctance to just leave Lina, despite all that had happened. She felt a small amount of empathy for the creature, knowing as she did that it was not naturally evil, it was following instructions that had been programmed into it. In a way she was the same, in a way the galaxy had moved beyond her too. The Jedi were no more, well, a fledgling order was being established but it held little resemblance to the order she'd known for most of her life, nor did she consider herself pure enough to be a part of it. She'd fought too many battles and spilled too much blood to know what it truly meant to be Jedi, destiny had made her into a weapon, as it had done Lina.

Despite that, she knew that everything Lina had said was true, in particular the part about her needing to get out of the colony. She ran.

The anarchy that was consuming Hades hit her like a brick to the face once she had emerged from the building. Within its temperature controlled, sound dampening walls it was easier to ignore what was taking place outside but as soon as she stepped out, a wave of heat, sound and toxic vapor blew away such pretences.

If death could be a visible, tangible thing, the colony would be it. Strangely, or perhaps depressingly, it matched how Bastila felt quite well. She wanted to scream, really scream and let it all out but she knew that then was not the time or the place. It was funny in a strange way; Lina had been using her from the start but now that she was gone, Bastila felt as though her only friend in the universe had left her. She felt alone. Revan, she had to find him. She walked up the street, pushing even her desire to find Revan aside; again, she would have to deal with that later, at that point she needed to focus on survival.

Her walk quickly became a sprint as she made her way through the absolute chaos that surrounded her. She ducked and hid where necessary, avoiding the riotous colonists where she could, hitting them hard with force powers then running if avoiding them was impossible. Many of the colonists had formed mobs and were lynching whatever they came across, mostly each other. They were acting on instinct and fear, which made them dangerous but predictable.

Eventually, she arrived at the tarmac where they had parked _Destiny's Redemption _to find it the scene of the most intense fighting in the colony, all those who retained at least some of their sanity had made their way to the tarmac it seemed. Blaster fire filled the air; the colonists were prepared to sacrifice anything to get aboard a ship. The chaos rendered the area unrecognizable to Bastila whose solitary, brief visit several days earlier provided no clues to the location of _Destiny's Redemption. _The possibility that the fighter already been stolen or destroyed was a chilling thought.

She took out the activation device of the craft and was immensely relieved to see on it a distance and direction readout, which she knew could only relate to her goal. She looked up again at the chaos; a medium sized craft was unsteadily lifting off, shaking violently as it did so, blaster fire rained upward toward it. She could only assume that either the pilot was seriously injured or there was a battle underway for the controls.

Without further hesitation she pushed onto the tarmac, trying as before to avoid conflict but finding that doing so was impossible. Many of the colonists had descended into some sort of blind fury, striking at anyone who was close enough. Despite her considerable skill, at times in the crush of the desperate crowd, there were simply too many blows and her brilliant lightsaber acted like a beacon, attracting attention from everywhere.

She uttered a brief cry of pain before she regained her control as a fist landed heavily in her side, this slowed her enough for several other blows to strike her hard while hands began clawing at her and attempting to rip her lightsaber away. She summoned the force and made herself the epicenter of a wave that threw the crowd back, many of them flying off her for some distance as though hit by a fast moving object. The force wave gave pause to the masses for a brief moment, one she was able to use in her hasty escape.

"You!" Someone called from behind her. Bastila turned her head to look without stopping her run and could see the large, burly man whom Lina had initially paid to protect the craft pursuing her, "Give me the activation key to that fighter!"

She felt that she would probably be able to out pace him and so she began spiriting even faster, using her force powers and lightsaber t part the crowds before her. The man though was able to use some sort of rocket boots that he was wearing to jump over her head and land several meters in front of her. He swung around and bought his massive blaster cannon to bear, it was the largest hand held weapon that Bastila had ever seen and looked like some sort of multi-barreled, blaster gatling gun.

The cannon produced an immense amount of blaster shots, Bastila whipped out her light saber and began dodging and deflecting the beams which was difficult but fortunately she was able to avoid all of his poorly aimed shots. He seemed to rely on the sheer volume of shots guaranteeing that one would hit eventually, Bastila was able to move fast enough to keep ahead of the wave of blaster fire that was being aimed at her. She dive-rolled into a position close enough so she could launch an attack on the man and did so, springing into the air while simultaneously swinging her blade, slicing the man clean in two at his waist.

The man's upper half fell to the ground and she could see droid components through the top of his lower body and the bottom on his upper, he continued to fire at her, unhindered by his lack of lower body. Bastila jumped back to avoid his renewed barrage as she struggled to deflect and evade every single shot, her strength ebbed away with each highly taxing, swift movement she made. Inevitably, she felt herself being hit a couple of times, one shot grazing her shoulder, another hitting her just above her hipbone, intense pain rippled through her body and she grunted but ignored it. When the chance finally came, she summoned the force and used her destroy droid ability on the man/droid, he exploded in a shower of sparks and smoke, his raining fire stopped.

Bastila once again summoned the force and used it to heal herself somewhat but her injuries were more than surface deep, she knew that in this case she would need some sort of proper medical attention to heal properly. Nonetheless, the force did enough to allow her to carry on, if a little more gingerly than before.

Wallow through the desperate masses on her way to _Destiny's Redemption, _was at times not easy but she was relieved to find the craft in one piece and still shielded by its force field security system. Bastila was desperate herself by that stage, fatigue had well and truly settled in, her muscles screamed in utter pain, her arms hung limply off her when she was not using them, vehemently protesting every movement she forced them to make as did every other part of her body. The air was painfully hot and toxic. Only her sheer force of will sustained Bastila's efforts.

A small group of criminals were attempting to gain access to _Destiny's Redemption, _which conveniently was parked away from much of the action, that and it not being a large ship seemed to have meant it had escaped notice on the whole. Bastila warily faced them as she approached, her oxygen staved, somewhat disorientated mind summoning the force to her once more, calling on her ability to create a stasis field but she was only able to freeze three of the six criminals she was facing, the rest charged her.

Pain and fatigue racked her entire body as she launched herself into a series of rolls and jumps. Surprising the small, running group by hitting them at an odd angle, she was able to cut down one of them immediately and then she viciously attacked the next before he was able to compensate for her cunning, only his good fortune in that his vibro-sword just happened to be in the right position allowed him to survive her onslaught. The third criminal attempted stab her with his own vibro-sword shortly before she would have been able kill the second, deftly avoiding the blow she found that to her fortune, the third man ended up killing the second instead. Her lightsaber ended his momentary surprise.

At that stage the three whom she'd frozen earlier were unbound and unsurprisingly attacked her as well. She threw them all back with a force wave that sent them flying far enough away that when they recovered, well, the two that recovered were unwilling to attack her again, much to Bastila's relief.

She produced the activation key from her pocket and used it to disable _Destiny's Redemption_'s security system. The hatch floated up with a hiss and Bastila prepared herself to enter it but then suddenly she sensed more danger.

The former Jedi dodged to her left just in time to avoid a hail of blaster fire, she swung around and saw the man/droid from before with great big holes burnt into his outer body revealing droid parts underneath. He looked like some sort of undead droid demon, a part of him was actually on fire, his movements were uncohesive and slow, the damaged from their earlier fight clear but somehow he had been able to precariously balance his severed upper body on his lower, using one arm to hold himself in place. His other arm was holding his great blaster cannon.

He again unleashed a hail of blaster fire on her and Bastila only barely managed to move herself out of the way, shots that would otherwise have been deadly passed bare millimeters from her. Her injuries were taking their toll by then, she felt searing pain shooting up the side of her body and the strength in her arm was rapidly diminishing. Still she went on, pure determination to find Revan was all that sustained her. Her body was operating on instinct alone, all the years she had spent fighting guided her movements, the force flowed through her body, giving her the strength to carry on. If Bastila had stopped to think about her situation, facing a rapid-fire cannon at almost point blank range, she probably would've decided that survival was impossible but Bastila wasn't thinking, she wasn't even breathing, she was just doing.

She dived and rolled, jumped and deflected, sometimes she felt shots shave the hair off her skin but using all the strength her lithe body could possibly produce and despite it being impossible, she somehow managed to keep herself from being hit again. When she was close enough, she jumped one last time and drove her lightsaber right down the middle of the man/droid, cutting him in half at a right angle to the way she had done it previously. The four quarters dropped to the ground in a heap and Bastila was dismayed to see arms snaking across the ground in an attempt to reach the gun that had been dropped in the fall. She cut each arm into several pieces then obliterated the gun in a similar fashion.

Finally, her body having had enough, she felt her strength leave her and she fell helplessly to her knees. The immense pain from her injuries was absolutely blinding, parts of her had gone numb and her arm hung limply from the rest of her, Bastila tried to summon the force to heal herself once again but she didn't even have the strength to do that. She collapsed on the ground, the cloudy haze that had been gathering on the outer parts of her vision threatened to consume her.

_Revan. Have to see Revan_.

She hauled her near broken body across the ground, her one good arm pulling the rest of her, she was not even aware of the pain that doing so caused her. When she had passed underneath the fighter, she was able to look up and see the open cockpit; it seemed to be a million miles above her head.

"Over here, quickly!" She heard shouting and running and realized that more criminals were coming to steal the craft, she knew that there was no way that she could fight them but fortunately she estimated that she still had a few seconds in which to get herself into the craft.

_Revan_.

She closed her eyes and using a combination of the last shreds of her strength, whatever minute capacity to summon the force she could muster, pure, utter determination and she didn't know what else but when she opened her eyes again she was inside the cockpit. She closed the hatch just as the criminals reached her and predictably, they began firing at the craft. Not even bothering to try to familiarize herself with the fighter's flight controls, she simply pushed what she thought would be the right buttons, pulled back on the yoke and hoped.

The engines whirred into life and the craft slowly lifted off the tarmac, sustaining fire as it did so but not damage, its thick hull was enough to protect it from the comparatively weak blaster pistols and riffles wielded by the criminals. Only an incredibly lucky shot would have disabled it but the criminals were not aiming and the craft quickly moved out of their range.

In a state approaching delirium, Bastila felt her way around the small cockpit for anything that would keep her alert. She used three antidote kits and a construction kit on herself, none of which had any effect before she finally found a med-pack. The cool healing power of the kolto soothed her and the filtered, oxygen rich air circulating through the cockpit gave her just enough strength to stave off unconsciousness. She gripped the control yoke with her single good hand and pushed it forward, the craft nimbly responded and she began to pilot her way out of the colony.

At that point she heard a large explosion, the shockwaves from which rocked _Destiny's Redemption. _Bastila turned and saw that the dome had finally been penetrated, a large hole was now in the upper section of it and the vast vacuum of space was sucking everything in the colony outward. She watched as entire buildings were ripped off their foundations and flew upward; the dome itself began a rapid and cataclysmic collapse that saw it being torn apart as the air that had been contained within it escaped into space, taking bodies and pieces with it. These would rain down on the airless colony later, held by the planet's weak but existent gravity and remaining forever on its barren, lifeless surface.

Gripping the yoke tightly, Bastila struggled to maintain the craft's stability and avoid whatever was flying through the air. Had she ever piloted a fighter in a washing machine she probably would have felt a sense of déjà vu but that not being the case she had nothing to compare the experience to, she simply gripped the controls as hard as she could and fought to keep the craft out of harm's way.

Although it had seemed like an age, seconds after the initial breech the colony's destruction was complete and the turbulence ended. An eerie silence settled and Bastila looked around to see that devastation had consumed Hades but it looked surprisingly peaceful. It was like a frozen graveyard, absolutely no life existed but it did not have the morbid look of a dead planet. The eeriness chilled Bastila, she pulled upward on the yoke and sent her craft away from Hades forever.

Once in space again, she turned to the navicomputer that was a small console to her left and searched its databanks for any mention of Derant. As Lina had promised, the co-ordinates were duly there and Bastila set the autopilot to take her to the colony, a journey that would take three days according to the computer. She was able to set the craft's sensors to notify her of anything that required her attention and so apart from that; she did not need to focus on the controls.

Bastila stopped fighting off the peaceful bliss of sleep as it took her and laid back before slipping away and into the depths of her mind.


	9. Chapter 9

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Nine.

_You will pay Bastila Shan._

Her screams were shrill and piercing at times, like fingernails on an antiquated chalkboard, at others they were low and mournful as if she were resting in between bouts of loud screaming. Eventually she would scream so much her voice would die out and only hard, heavy breaths would be audible if not drowned out by her futile struggles against whatever binds he would choose to use on her.

Her breath was sharp and fast at certain points, such as when she was straining against her binds so much that her veins stuck out of her sweat covered arm and her whole body quivered with the effort. At other times she would hold her breath as the pain she felt would be so intense that she would have no other choice.

Her blood was hot and left a tasty, metallic twang on his tong that made him desire more and more. He would have it too, he would drink until she had none left, until he had drained her entire body the delicious, delicious red fluid. Then he would use medical equipment to restore her to some level of health before he would do it all again, so the cycle would continue, for years and years. She would know pain greater than any other had ever dreamed in their worse, most terrifying nightmares.

_You will pay, oh yes you will pay, so dearly._

None of it would bring back what she had destroyed though, nothing ever could but he would make sure she regretted what she had done with every fiber of her worthless, weak, pathetic, insignificant…

A beeping sound emitted by the console in front of him awoke Motten from his daydream, the C.O.P.S. symbol flashed indicating an incoming transmission, likely his C.O. He quickly checked another screen that showed Bastila's craft still traveling in the direction of Derant, several clicks ahead of his own cloaked fighter craft, she would be completely oblivious to the death that stalked her, as she had been since Nar Shaddaa. He accepted the voice only transmission.

"Agent 1251; report." The deep, powerful voice of his C.O. demanded, the man's arrogance perfectly clear despite the thousands of light-years that separated Motten from him. Motten certainly was not intimidated, not by any man, not after he had seen his former master, Darth Sion, rip through an entire squadron of Republic soldiers as if they were nothing. How Sion had ever been killed, Motten didn't know. The Sith Lord had been invincible yet he had died, which had meant Motten was unemployed.

Job opportunities that suited brutal assassins were few, which was why Motten wanted to keep his if he could and so he handled the C.O. with a fair degree of diplomacy, far more than he would ever use with anyone else.

_When I get my chance for revenge though, nothing will stop me._

"The target has somehow escaped the destruction of Hades and now appears on course for another colony; Derant." Motten replied in his hiss like tone.

"Perhaps this will lead to the primary objective."

"Perhaps, I will inform you immediately if so."

"Be sure that you do."

"One question; if I do locate the primary objective, the target…"

"Is to be kept alive and on board the colony as is the primary objective, do not defy me on this, agent."

_If I get her alone…_

"Yes."

"That will be all, control out."

His eyes flicked back to the screen showing Bastila's ship. His thin lips curled at their edges, his tong licked the inside of his jagged, sharpened teeth as he imagined the taste of blood again. Her blood.

_Oh yes you will pay._

--

Bastila floated in and of consciousness throughout the journey. Dreams of a field littered with mutilated bodies and body parts haunted her sleep, she had never seen such a gruesome scene but she recognized the faces of the bodies she saw. They were all those whom she herself had killed, their mortal lightsaber wounds apparent. Closest to her perspective lay the mutilated bodies of the criminals she had slain on Hades; Garetos' bloodied corpse was among them.

She partially awoke feeling nauseous and weak. Pain racked her entire body and she still could not feel or move her arm or the section of her torso that had been shot. She attempted heal herself but weakness and disorientation made it immensely difficult to feel the comforting presence of the force. Increasingly she relied on her rapidly diminishing supply of medpacks. Her force blindness only added to her discomfort.

On several occasions she awoke with stabbing, crushing pain in her chest, she looked at her shivering, sweat bathed skin and saw that it was sickly and pale. The atmospheric controls were set to normal and only a relaxing injection of kolto could sooth her, although she sensed that the kolto was more masking the symptoms than healing the true damage.

Three days following her departure from Hades, the computer indicated that she had reached Derant. After some time she had awoken fully only to feel as though she had never slept. She had recovered some of her complexion but otherwise was just as weak as she had been but with the haunting image of the field lingering in her mind. She attempted to dismiss the sickening visage, whenever she closed her eyes though she saw it again. Garetos body lay in a pool of blood.

_He bought it upon himself! _If only she believed those words.

She forced herself to continue, the prospect of finally finding Revan certainly distracted her but she could not decide whether the distraction was positive or not. The man had always been an enigma; though she had loved him dearly, she had never understood him and was not sure whether she ever could.

After he had left she had felt intense sadness and longing. Entire days had passed of which she had no memory, her consciousness throughout had been consumed by him. As time had passed these feelings had diminished to a point where she had begun wonder whether he had ever been in her life to start with and had not been some insane dream about some sort of neo-god. After that she had begun to feel angry.

When she thought of how he had abandoned the Republic – abandoned her – to fates that had nearly destroyed both, she felt furious. He had been responsible for what had happened – there was no doubt. He had turned Malak, originally a loyal and courageous Jedi, into some sort of twisted animal who in turn had decimated the Republic. Malak though had been kind to the Republic in comparison to his treatment of her. Revan had briefly appeared to stave off complete destruction but then left again before the real healing had been given a chance to take place. In effect, Revan had thrown them to the Kath hounds.

Over time, her anger had festered and grown until she could not tell whether she loved him still or hated him. The Jedi she had once been urged her to let go of those hateful thoughts but Bastila was no Jedi, of that she was certain. She did not know what she would do when she found him. Sometimes she wondered whether he or she would live through the experience, or if she wanted either of them to. She thought of Carth and Saul, initially she had found Carth's thoughts somewhat unstable but that was when she had still been naive.

She realized that she had allowed her ever present fury to rise again, fury that led her to actions such as merciless killing. She closed her eyes and attempted to clear her mind, the field of death once again penetrated her thoughts. She opened her eyes again, her fury lingered in the air, perhaps it was fortunate that she was too weak for it to consume her completely.

Her focus shifted again and she studied the colony of Derant. An immense, wheel shaped outer section was joined to a spherical inner section by a number of thin spokes. It had probably been grand at one stage but that was long passed, large chunks of it were missing and all sorts of damage was visible, what seemed to have once been a gleaming white hull had yellowed and dirtied over time. Her craft indicated that it was moving slowly but there was no planet or sun near enough for it to be orbiting, she wondered whether it was orbiting some distant star or if it were just drifting. Whatever the case, the fighter had some means of tracking it, she didn't have any idea what the means was.

As she approached it became clear that only a small part of the immense station was habitable, yet even that appeared to allow more space than the entire colony of Hades. She activated her craft's communication system, then began speaking over the channel.

"Colony of Derant, do you read?"

"Yeah, I can read," came a reply, "what the [_insert expletive_] do you want?"

"Permission to land."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Jennifer Hale, I'm here on business."

"I'm here on [_insert expletive_] business too. Land in bay 3 [_insert expletive_] and don't make any [_insert expletive_] trouble or we'll [_insert expletive_] [_insert expletive_] you [_insert expletive_]."

Bastila did not bother replying. Whatever low life had been on the other end of that com channel clearly did not deserve one. Instead she set about attempting to determine where exactly bay 3 was and how she could land the craft there. She found that the computer was equipped with some sort of auto landing program, once she had specified bay 3 it practically did the rest unaided.

--

Motten waited as Bastila's craft landed. Contacting the station as she had was far too obvious for his purposes. Once he had spoken to one person, they would speak to another and them to another. A surprisingly large number of missions had been compromised in that fashion, none of Motten's however, a record he intended to maintain.

He bought his ship right up to Bastila's, trusting it's cloaking device to hide it from her senses just as he trusted his force evasion techniques to hide himself from her. As her small craft landed in the reasonable sized landing bay, he landed his own, meters back.

In its position his craft took just enough space to function as a barrier between hers and the only exit. If she attempted to leave either she would strike his craft, or she would strike the roof, neither of which would yield without causing her fighter significant damage. The fact that she would be unaware of the size and shape of his craft due to its cloaking device made it even more likely that she could not escape.

_As soon as you lead me to the primary objective, I will have you._

He waited for her to disembark and leave, allowing her a small head start but preventing her from hearing his movements. In the meantime he watched, closer to his target than ever before.

--

Bastila felt it as soon as she approached the colony, even though her injuries all but blinded her to the force. She remembered an occasion during her youth on which she needed to explore an area near a waterfall for some part of her Jedi training. She vividly recalled standing near to the waterfall itself as it towered over her, reaching up by several hundred meters. The power with which the water beat down on the rock near where she stood was awe inspiring, she had felt the rock shaking beneath her as the water pounded it. Where most force auras were like raindrops, Revan's was the waterfall, it was something that no force sensitive could not notice.

Confirmation that Revan was indeed somewhere in the colony came with a mix of anticipation and anger for Bastila. She tried to formulate some sort of address, to think of how she might approach him, what she might say. Nothing she could think of seemed appropriate. She resigned to herself. Only the moment would tell her what words to use.

Once the craft had landed, she disembarked, finding herself barely able to support her own weight. Searing pain rippled throughout her body as she climbed gingerly out of the craft and onto to deck. She took a moment to recover from her efforts and summoned the force to her as she did so, directing it toward healing her injuries.

Although something like an attempt to douse a raging bush fire with a garden hose, her force heal at least helped a little and along with a few moments spent gasping for breath, was enough to allow her to stand and continue. She activated her craft's security system and walked toward the landing bay's exit while slipping the key into her pocket. She was completely unaware that she would never use the key again.

The colony itself was a maze of endless corridors, filled with the same sort of pirates and criminals that had populated Hades. None of them looked approachable and all seemed to have a hand on a blaster at all times. She did not see any other humans, most were species that she did not recognize, even from Hades. She wondered whether they were from local planets although a lot of them looked to be half-breeds. These musings however were on the most distant part of her consciousness.

_Will I even recognize him? Will he remember me?_

The last part of her thought came with a tinge of fear but that was rapidly consumed by her anger. _He'd better._

She found her way to a turbo lift then used it to travel up and down the levels of the station until Revan's force aura became even more pronounced. Even in her weakened state she could feel the immense disturbance that his mere presence created.

Her heart rate seemed to increase with every step once she emerged from the turbo lift. A whole spectrum of emotions swirled about within her, her thoughts were in turmoil. She walked up yet another corridor, her steps slowing. The small journey had taken a great toll on her, her body demanded a moment of rest but she refused it. His aura seemed most concentrated around a particular room.

The large doors hissed open as she approached and Bastila could see that she had come to the local cantina. She entered cautiously and scanned the room, it was clear that Revan was among the many who populated the busy bar and Pazzak area, or even situated near to the dancing girls area in the far corner of the room. Where exactly he was, she didn't know but chose to believe he was not near the dancing girls.

She approached the bar slowly, carefuly observing every other being she came across, none of them bore any resemblance to Revan. The barman leaned toward her as she took a seat at the bar, the music was fairly loud and the scruffy looking drink server no doubt needed to get as close to her as he could just to hear her. She saw a look of contempt cross his face as he appraised her.

"I'm looking for a man named Revan," she stated simply, unsure whether the name would be known on the station or not. The barman's eyes flicked up toward the door as she asked and Bastila spun to see a shadowy, cloaked figure dash out of the room. She immediately took off in pursuit.

--

Motten slowly approached the entrance to the cantina, his stealth device fully active. He had been silently pursuing his target since she had entered the colony and was most pleased to see that she was clearly quite badly injured. She didn't seem to be letting that hold her back however, her determination only increased his desire. Suddenly the doors opened and for one of the few times in his life, Motten was completely and utterly shocked by whom he saw exiting the cantina.

The primary objective.

He turned away from the shady figure who seemed to briefly take note of his presence despite Motten's stealth device and force evasion techniques. The primary objective obviously decided he wasn't a threat and then dashed up the hallway. The target emerged a short time later and followed as fast as her weakened state would allow.

Motten activated his voice communication device. Several decks below his craft received and diverted the signal, via a long-range communications system, to the nearest Republic communications satellite, which was located just inside the outer rim, near to the world of Paddasamp. From there the signal bounced between other satellites in the complex communications network, passing by a large number of planets including Kashyyk, Nar Shaddaa and Manaan in its journey, which took it all the way to Coruscant.

--

Fleet Admiral Dain Kulhoun's immense office stood high above the rest of Coruscant's impressive vista. It encompassed the entire second highest floor of the tallest building on the planet, an immense structure that towered over the capital world, its peak not even visible from ground level. The building seemed to reach up to the sky and it did, the highest parts of it were in a region of the atmosphere often considered 'in space' on other worlds.

The Republic navy's embalm was etched into the side of it's head quarters and was very visible from ground level, as it was from a large section of the planet. Only one Admiral had a higher office than Kulhoun.

A beeping emanated from his enormous desk, one that would take up the entire floor space of almost any other room, in Kulhoun's office however, it occupied only a small part. The Fleet Admiral pressed a button on the console in front of him and seeing that the transmission was from agent 1251, accepted it. He knew it could only mean one thing.

"Report." He ordered. He knew that his powerful voice struck fear into the soul of any on whom he bought it to bear. Like the voice of a god. Appropriate really, he was a god. Soon, he would be even more.

"I have located the primary objective." The agent's snake like, hissing tone replied.

"Excellent." Kulhoun answered "Ensure that he and the target do not leave the colony."

"Yes."

"Control out." Kulhoun took a moment to bask in his coming glory. He surveyed the scene over which he had a commanding view, the senate building and the abandoned Jedi temple sat in the distance, like insignificant bugs. Soon he would be lord of that land, he knew as well as the galaxy itself. The temple would become a place of worship, not to that archaic and foolish notion of the force but to him, it would be his temple. He was not completely decided on what he would do with the senate building, perhaps it would become a museum. Then again, it would be unwise to remind his underlings of what would be their democratic past. Perhaps it could just be another temple, after all, one could never have too many worshipers.

He touched another button on the console,

"Admiral Cede." He summoned.

"Yes sir," the Admiral hurried to answer.

"Is my task force ready?"

"Yes sir. Supplies and fuel all loaded, we await only you orders sir."

"Excellent, we leave within the hour. I'm sending the co-ordinates to you now, our destination is a colony beyond the rim known as Derant."

"Very good sir."

--

Bastila left the cantina as fast as she was capable and briefly looked around upon exiting. A rapidly diminishing shadow was in the distance, she hurried toward it. Her body was on the verge of collapse, pain screamed from every part of it. She didn't care.

"Revan!" She shouted commandingly. He stopped and she hurried toward him. As she approached, he slowly turned toward her and Bastila got her first look at the man, thoughts of whom had been dominating her mind for almost a decade. She wasn't impressed by what she saw.

In the Star Forge days Revan had kept himself tidy, fit and respectable, now he seemed a shadow of that man. He was overweight and unshaven; it did not appear as though he had changed his clothing in some time, or repaired them ever, or launded them for that matter. Once closer still she could smell a thick layer of alcohol in his breath, as well as various other things she did not want to guess. Bastila could feel fury quietly building up inside her, she pushed it aside for the time being. There had to be a good explanation, there just had to.

"Bastila hey, long time no see," Revan said. His voice seemed to flirt with sarcasm, as though he were quite unconcerned about talking to her. "You look like hell, you been in a fight or something?"

Bastila was still trying to convince herself that what she was seeing was not the reality. That somehow she was not seeing the real Revan.

"What are you… what are you doing out here?" she asked, hoping that there would be something else that she had not considered. Some reason, anything.

"Not too much, you know just… yeah," he replied, all too casually.

"And the Sith?"

"The Sith? Yeah I've got some Sith jokes; a Sith Lord walks into a bar... bonk! Three Sith Lords walk into a bar, you'd think the third one would've force levitated it! Darth Vader says; Luke, I know what you're getting for Christmas! I felt you your presents!"

"What... are you talking about?" Bastila felt as she had just before she'd killed Garetos, only much more intense. Her fury then had been palatable. She slowly and reluctantly came to face the reality of what was before her.

"Hey hey, no need to get angry, I don't owe you anything right? I saved the galaxy, remember? Killed Malak and all that."

"You ended a war that you yourself had begun, do you not remember all the people you killed during the war Revan? What about the planets you abandoned during the Mandalorian wars? How many people have you killed Revan?! How can you believe you have no obligations?!"

Revan seemed to change completely in an instant. Bastila felt a small wave of apprehension as she remembered that the man she was facing had once been the Dark Lord of the Sith. Her anger briefly diminished but only slightly.

"Do you think I don't know that?" he asked in all seriousness, his tone suddenly dark and tortured.

"Then why?" Bastila replied, barely able to contain her fury.

"Because I don't care about the Republic, they're corrupt Bastila, can't you see? They're false." Bastila had no answer for him, she was stunned. She wondered how Revan could possibly believe that, it was only because people like him who had the power to change things didn't that the Republic had become what it was.

"Do you know what else Bastila?" Revan continued darkly "I don't care about you, why do you think I never contacted you? I don't care Bastila, I really don't."

Bastila felt herself loose the tenuous grip she had had on sanity. She felt like the pieces that made up her sense of self where crumbling and falling apart; all her emotions and experiences, all of her memories and everything that made her who she was were like waves breaking against an unrelenting cliff face. Bastila felt shattered, crushed and destroyed in so many ways, she was not aware of anything that was going on in the galaxy outside her head.

Finally, she gave in. She could not handle it. She abandoned herself and her pathetic life, falling into the welcoming embrace of unconsciousness and with any luck, death.

--

Motten watched as the target collapsed in front of the primary objective, unbelieving of his luck. He didn't want to get too close to the primary objective himself, who was obviously aware of his presence but from the way their conversation had been going, Motten anticipated that the man would simply leave her, walk away and abandon Bastila to his clutches. A slow grin spread across his face. The C.O. would get over loosing the target, she was not his main concern at any rate, the primary objective was exactly that, she was just a bonus.

The C.O. would never know what had become of Bastila Shan, no one ever would. She would be his own personal plaything, his toy on which he would carry out every demented desire that ever occurred to him. He felt like laughing, laughing so hard that he cried, except that that was not a good look for any self respecting assassin.

He watched the primary objective who hesitated for an agonizing moment, clearly caught by indecision, Motten knew what decision he would make. He waited in gleeful anticipation.


	10. Chapter 10

Aww! Nobody likes my Revan! He's not fat! He's just big boned! Leave him alone! [Protectively hugs fat Revan] Alright, alright, you win, I'll de-fat him. :P [zaps fat Revan with all powerful writer's finger-bolt type thingee, fat Revan deflates with balloon popping sound, becomes thin, boring, average Revan]

[Dramatically] You may take my fat Revan, but you'll nevertake- HIS PSYCOLOGICAL ISSUES! Yahhhh!

Also, this chapter was too large to be a single chapter and I didn't want to take anything out so I decided to split it up.

Feedback is always appreciated. My apologies for not getting around to replying those who reviewed my last chapter, I am lazy! I'll admit it!

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Ten.

The blaster riffle quivered in Republic Soldier, Private Marcie Amorous' white-knuckled grip.

_Okay, keep cool, remember your training, be calm, _she told herself and was rewarded by a few seconds of relative calm before her composure crumbled once more. She relinquished one hand of her shaky hold for the briefest of moments and wiped some of the sweat that had gathered on her forehead out of her eyes. The effort proved futile since the instant she removed her hand, more sweat gushed. She blinked her eyes a few times as her vision became murky, a similarly futile gesture. _Damn it! Why am I so scared?!_ Well, the answer to that was obvious.

She checked behind her again and saw nothing but the dark empty corridor that she had already passed, she turned back and saw an identical scene in front of her. She heard the noise again. Her ears strained as she attempted to decipher the strange sound. There was definitely some sort of squeaking sound accompanied by a soft sort of rubbing, as well as the occasional glint of metal maybe striking something hard. Marcie had never heard anything like it although her imagination provided her with plenty of explanations, none of which made her feel better. The sound had been getting progressively louder as she had advanced.

Marcie was only in her mid twenties but she had seen enough of the galaxy to know that there were too many things that could easily and remorselessly end a life like hers. She felt the sweat running down her brow again.

_Frack!_

She slowly proceeded up the hallway, carefully considering every step. The slightest flicker of movement or the tiniest of sounds drew the point of her weapon, her finger dropping onto the trigger as she readied herself to fire. Several times she swung around ready to blast something to a char only to watch a small rodent scurrying away or realize that she'd simply imagined it. At least, she hoped that she had imagined it, whatever 'it' was.

_Frack! Frack! Frack! Frack! Frack!_

She rounded a corner and in the distance saw light streaming out from underneath a door, lighting the hallway like beacon. Marcie checked a datapad that had been in her pocket, Admiral Kulhoun's orders had been vague; proceed to the stated co-ordinates, go alone. She gulped. She heard the sound again, definitely from in the room and much louder. She then heard what seemed to be some sort of low chuckle.

_Whatever the frack that is, it doesn't sound very nice. What the frack is going on here? Why am I here alone?_

She was almost tempted to disobey the Admiral's orders and return to one of the Republic ships that had laid siege to the colony of Derant, well, laid siege for about a second before the colony had surrendered. Whatever was behind that door was guaranteed to be less fearsome than the Admiral when he became enraged however. She knew there was no other way. As white as a sheet and shaking like one in the wind, she pressed forward, the relatively short distance up the hall seemed like a mile.

She approached the door cautiously, it was a very outdated style of door, not motorized like most doors, instead it had hinges. Marcie had not seen a door like it in years but somehow she was not surprised to find one there. It opened into the room and was open a slight amount; just enough to mean that it would not be locked.

_Alright, kick door open, charge in, wave gun around, tell everyone to get to the floor. Simple, easy, you can do that right? Sure you can! Oh whatever deity might exist – please let me live! _

She heard the sound again.

_Is that… flesh being cut?_

--

Revan stared at his clenched fist. _Damn you Bastila _he cursed but the words were empty.

At first, no amount of alcohol had been enough to banish the faces, their haunting stares, pale skin, lips that moved but made no sound. '_It's all your fault'_ they had moaned at him and he had known that it was. Malachor, the entire Civil war; all his fault. The billions that had died; men, women and children, murderers who deserved no better but innocents as well, all staring at him, black eyes, pale faces. '_It's all your fault'. _'_It's all your fault'. _'_It's all your fault'. _His mind had been a prison. Everywhere he had looked, eyes closed or open, every shadow, every sound, the faces had been waiting for him, staring at him, surrounding him, following him everywhere, waiting around every corner. Sleep would never come and they had haunted every waking moment.

He remembered the way living people had regarded him, as if he was some sort of prophet, some sort of saint. A god who could do no wrong, everything he had touched would turn to gold. It made him sick.

He unclenched his fist and relaxed. It had not been Bastila's fault, none of it had, it was unfair to blame her. She was just another victim, another helpless innocent caught up in the deadly schemes of Darth Revan. Well, Malak had turned her to the darkside but Darth Revan had been the root of it all, Darth Revan, him. Malak had been a victim himself, Revan could still remember the loyal, brave and courageous Alek Squinquargesimus. Alek had been the one who had deserved redemption, not Revan.

She had been the worse of them all, he remembered. The looks she had given him, the admiration she'd had for him, dedication, the love. It had been too much. He did not deserve it; he did not deserve any of it. He had loved her so much but hated himself in equal measure.

There had been only one escape, one choice. Run, forget, bury the past. Cease to be Darth Revan, cease to be Revan. Become no one, just some other lost soul with no past. The alcohol helped to forget things. It had worked, almost. Then she had returned.

Despite all the things he had done in life, all he had left were regrets. No matter how much he wanted to though, he knew there was no way to change the past. Even at the height of his power, he was never capable of that.

_Bastila. I wish I had never abandoned you._

--

Marcie was dry retching. The scene before her was absolutely horrific, there was no other way to describe it yet even that seemed hopelessly inadequate. Her charge into the room had been forgotten, abandoned the instant she had swept her eyes around and seen what was going on. She had never seen so much blood, at first glance she'd thought the room's color scheme seemed out of place. Then she had realized.

There was a tall, lanky, pale-skinned man, well he probably had pale skin. There was another person, _was _another person. Marcie could not tell much other than that the person seemed to have had long, brown hair. She noticed the person's hand twitch several times.

_Gods! How can he… or she possibly _still _be alive?! _She thought. It was the last she ever had.

--

The Republic soldier dropped to the ground, the shuriken that had killed her protruding from her head as she collapsed, the look of horror that she had died with was frozen into her features. Motten could not help but release a slight sigh in relief. Fortunately, she had never collected herself fast enough to use the blaster riffle she had held, otherwise he might've been killed.

He chuckled; after the all the things he had done, all the wars and all the Jedi he'd killed, only to die at the hands of some hapless nobody. It would have been an ironic death. He wondered how he could possibly have forgotten to lock the door, then he remembered; he had been expecting company, he'd just become a little distracted.

He quickly glanced at the table next to him and saw the belt buckle that he'd picked up first. A brief moment of terror had passed when the assassin had realized that belt buckles were not deadly, luckily, the shuriken had been the next thing he'd found. He laughed.

He walked over to the body of the dead private, actually, she was quite attractive. He did not find it very strange that she would be wandering the back corridors of Derant alone. He picked up the datapad from her pocket, it displayed co-ordinates he recognized as being for the room. He scrolled down on the screen and was required to enter a pass code, a message from Kulhoun was then displayed.

The Admiral would often supply him with victims on which he could sate his desires. Kulhoun well knew what Motten required and preferred to choose Motten's victims, lest Motten choose someone who might otherwise be useful. A few pawns and nobodies were a small price to pay for the services of an assassin like Motten, or so Kulhoun obviously thought.

Motten turned back at the victim he had already been enjoying. He eyed her long brown hair, it was mostly separated from her body, well, the opposite could also have been true. She was dead, little wonder really.

_Sorry Admiral, _he thought but he was not, _too late._

--

She did not feel connected to reality, it was as if she had ceased to be mortal and become some a free spirit. She felt the force as it ebbed and flowed around her like a great river, she watched it flow though time and space, swirling around some but stopping for none as it continued its inevitable journey onward. It was one of the few times that she had felt so connected to the force and the first that she had been able to obtain some vague comprehension of what it actually was, although she knew that understanding it was far beyond her, or anyone. It was moment that did not last.

The proximity of a particular, very familiar force presence centered her somewhat. A crushing realization bought her back to reality like a cold slap on the cheek then slowly yet surely, the trappings of mortality returned. The words came back to her, painful, spiteful words and she felt the familiar sense of sadness and anger return. She felt alone, she knew that she did not have a single friend in the entire galaxy. She did not even have the vein hope that Revan would one day return and repair everything anymore. The bastard.

She wondered how her life had ever come to that, a life that had promised so much but delivered only cold ashes. Revan. That was how. When he had first entered her life, that had been the beginning of the end.

_I _hate_ you._

Her hate was like an inferno, it blazed well out of her ability to control it, consuming her completely. A distant part of her tried to resist, tried to stop herself from falling back into her old ways but it was too hard to fight it and too easy to hate Revan.

She opened her eyes and a white room hazed into focus. It was clearly a medical facility of some sort, she was lying in a bio-bed while monitors and machines buzzed and beeped on a table beside her. Tubes and wires were going in and out of her skin, her tattered tunic had been removed and she was wearing some sort of medical gown, she was clean.

She felt good, much better than she had for some time, the feeling of constant pain had gone. She lifted her arm and the felt the strength in it, she clenched her fist, a thin smile spread across her face. Aside from a slight amount of weakness because of the fact that she had not moved in some time, she felt almost completely fit. A few good sparring sessions would blow away the cobwebs.

"Go away. I never want to see you again." She growled. Her voice was horse from some apparent time of her being unconscious. She had no idea how much time but she would have guessed in the region of several days, perhaps even a week.

"Bastila… I don't even know how to begin to say sorry…"

"Don't waste your breath. Get out. I hate you." Her voice was low and burned with anger.

She turned her head to glare at the man she'd once loved but her expression of malice was replaced by one of surprise when she saw a number of armed Republic soldiers standing between where Revan sat and the door of the small, white room. One of the soldiers was whispering into a communication device. Her eyes widened.

"I'm sorry Bastila, I can't." Revan looked into her eyes for the first time since their initial meeting, which he mostly could not remember apart from carrying her to the infirmary afterward. He had sobered up after that.

"What have you done?" she hissed. She knew the Soldiers were not there to help them.

"I did nothing." He replied truthfully, "I couldn't, they were threatening to kill you."

Bastila knew she wasn't very well prepared to fight her way out of there, she had no weapons and was wearing only a flimsy medical gown. She knew her options were few but she did not intend to let that stop her.

_I have the force, I will fight them and they will die._

She raised her hand and in an instant all three of the soldiers few into the wall behind them before they had a chance to do anything. It felt good to be commanding the force again. She felt strong, unstoppable, like the galaxy was at her feet.

"Stop!" Revan shouted and stood, holding out his arms in a gesture to her but she ignored him, one of the soldier's weapons flew up into her hands and settled in her grip, her finger wrapped around the trigger. Revan jumped at her in an effort to pull the blaster riffle away but she withdrew it from his reach and with another gesture sent him flying into the wall as well.

Revan's efforts gave the soldiers enough time to recover somewhat but Bastila was easily able to anticipate their actions. She rolled off the bed in time to avoid their fire, pulling the tubes and wires out of her as she did so and took cover behind the bed. When they stopped shooting, she spring up and shot back with force assisted, pinpoint precision. She did so several times, from different positions and shot two very quickly, one managed to scurry out of the room, no doubt to call reinforcements. Bastila did not care.

She stood, walked around the bed and separated herself from the last of the medical equipment as she did. Had she glanced in a mirror she would have seen that she did not cut an imposing figure but none the less she looked spitefully at Revan who had had dropped to the ground to take cover during the firefight. Her eyes smoldering with the hate and anger that burned inside her. She raised her weapon.

"Bastila stop this now, you don't understand what's happening, please! Listen to me!" He looked different to when she had seen him last, she realized her initial impressions of him being overweight were wrong.

Bastila leveled the gun at the one time Sith Lord, albeit one who seemed to have suffered a considerable fall from grace. The force, she knew, required concentration and a certain amount of being in tune with it in order to be able to manipulate it, even for those who were sensitive to it, or very sensitive in Revan's case. Despite his force sensitivity however, many years of consuming alcohol and not practicing its use would be enough to almost completely blind him to the force, and it to him.

A distant part of her felt saddened, watching Revan use the force had been like watching the best at any other practice performing, awe inspiring to those who appreciated the art, she doubted that their generation would see another of his power. Still, the satisfaction of being the one to kill him would be all the more. It was the least he deserved for what he had done.

_You destroyed me and now I will destroy you. Time to die Revan._

Little did she know it but Revan did indeed have most of his ability to wield the force in tact, instinct told him to conceal this however as it was one of few advantages that he had. He was ready to deflect any blaster fire she sent his way with the force but he hoped it would not come to that, he had never intended to try and escape the colony with a mortally wounded Bastila but he had hoped that she would be more co-operative once she recovered.

"Bastila, please! Give me a chance to explain!" Revan all but begged. At one time he'd been able to turn her away from the darkside but that had been a long time before, he had been able to fight and beat her then. _Not now. _She lifted her finger to the trigger of the weapon she pointed at him; a direct hit would be enough to kill him she knew. She grinned, the look on her face reflected the pure malice that she felt for him. An all-consuming hate burned within her soul.

"What's the matter Revan? Can't control your woman?"

Bastila was stunned, she turned to see Dain Kulhoun standing just inside the door with half a dozen armed soldiers pointing their weapons directly at her. She realized that she'd been so focused on Revan she'd missed their entry completely. _Fool!_

The tall, well muscled, dark haired man stood with unending confidence and hands clasped behind his back. He seemed to think he was in a parade. Medals and rank pins glistened and gleamed all over his white dress uniform, Bastila doubted he had legitimately earned any of them. She had met him before and knew what an asshole he was, one that mostly got his way none the less.

"Let me give you a few pointers." Kulhoun continued arrogantly "Firstly, _never_, allow her to get a hold of a weapon." His long strides closed the distance between him and Bastila fast. He was a foolish, arrogant man, she realized; he was approaching her while she still held a weapon. However, when she looked at the soldiers she noted that even she would be unable to swing around and fire at him before being shot. She briefly considered doing so anyway but Kulhoun snatched the weapon off her before she had decided.

"Secondly," he added, "_always _have her on a leash."

The Admiral produced a small device that looked like some sort of remote control, it had a single button on its surface which he pushed. Bastila felt a pinprick at the back of her neck and her hand shot up to feel some sort of small metallic box attached to her. She felt herself growing weaker and weaker, it was as if her body was rapidly gaining density. Within a few seconds she was unable to even carry her own weight and with a cry of shock and despair she collapsed helplessly to the ground, falling backward to where she lay, unable even to feel her body or the force. It was as if her brain, ears and eyes existed as a separate entity to her limp, useless body.

Kulhoun turned his attention to Revan.

"Your much vaunted force powers don't seem to be working Revan, you tricked me didn't you. That was a mistake, I assure you."

"Don't hurt her Kulhoun."

"Or what? You'll use the force on me? Do I have 'stupid' written on my forehead or are you just trying to insult me? Men have died for lesser mistakes Revan, you're just lucky I have a use for you or else you would be too, along with that stupid cow you seem to like for some reason. Here, have some free advice; it didn't look much like she feels the same way about you Revan, I'd cut your losses if I were you."

"What are you planning Kulhoun?" Revan demanded, Kulhoun turned back and grinned, Bastila could tell he had been waiting for that question.

"Ahh, so you want to know my master plan? No harm in that I suppose, especially considering you will both play key roles. You remember how the Jedi wiped your mind and reprogrammed you to destroy Malak yes?"

Revan's jaw hardened, he did not respond.

"Well the Jedi aren't the only ones who reprogram minds, my machines can do just as well, if not better. Also remember that no Sith, Mandalorian, Exchange boss, warlord or anything has been as feared in recent times as much the great Darth Revan. You bought the galaxy to its knees, although it's hard to believe that now but soon you'll do so again."

Suddenly Bastila knew exactly what he was talking about, terror overtook her and she struggled to move her paralyzed body, able to do nothing but utter a quiet choking sound. Kulhoun looked down at her and she felt prone and helpless, she was completely unable to defend herself. She was painfully aware that the gown ended mid way down her thighs and didn't cling to her by any means.

"She knows, don't you my dear. Only too well." He knelt beside her and ran the back of his hand along her cheek as if being affectionate, a gesture belayed by the arrogant, lustful smirk on his face.

"Kulhoun!" Revan growled and was about to step across the room toward the two but a warning shot fired by one of the soldiers gave him pause. There was no way he wanted to let Kulhoun have his way with Bastila but he knew he could not afford to give up his advantage unless he had a clear chance of escape. He readied himself to intervene but resolved not to do so unless it was absolutely necessary.

"You're actually quite cute when you're incapacitated." Kulhoun commented, ignoring Revan. Bastila shuddered each time he touched her, or she would have had she been able to feel her body. She closed her eyes and could only hear his voice. "I'm almost tempted to take you back to my room and… well, that would make Motten quite jealous, not that I care but still, I have other whores who would smile while they did it."

He stood, Bastila's hate and disgust for the man tempered by her relief that he had not carried out his threat. Various, gruesome plans for killing him passed through her mind, none of which were possible at that time. As the Admiral left the room, the soldiers moved in and picked up Revan and Bastila.

"Take them to the ship," Kulhoun ordered on his way out.

--

Motten slowly put his cloths back on. He still regretted not managing to capture Bastila although he knew there would be more opportunities to do that. He had just received a summon from Kulhoun who had been annoyed that Motten had killed two soldiers, not too annoyed however.

He attached his vibroblades to his belt and pulled on his cloak, then lifted the hood over his head so that only his pale jaw was visible. He surveyed the room one last time, eying the two dead bodies with a slight curling of his lip and then left.

The assassin made his way toward the main hanger where Kulhoun's shuttle waited, occupants of the station as well as Republic soldiers dived out of his way as he walked. He had to sit aboard the shuttle for some minutes before the Admiral arrived, he did not mind. He found a seat, near to the Admiral's quarters and sat.

"Motten." The Admiral summoned in his strong, arrogant voice. Motten stood and walked into Kulhoun's lavish traveling quarters. The room took up almost two thirds of the shuttle's available space. It was a very large shuttle.

"Yes sir." Motten hissed at Kulhoun who was sitting in a lounger. A servant droid was near by offering Kulhoun a selection of drinks, Kulhoun made no effort to offer Motten any.

"Bastila and Revan are being loaded onto the _Bismarck_. Follow them. If either of them tries to escape, kill them."

Motten was confused,

"I thought you wanted them alive?"

"I've secured D.N.A samples from both of them. If necessary I can clone them. Of course it would be easier to work with pre-made subjects but I cannot risk them escaping. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." Motten was already grinning, he could see that his chance of capturing Bastila was coming. He turned and left to carry out his mission.


	11. Chapter 11

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Eleven.

The _Bismarck _was a hammerhead class battle cruiser equipped with the very latest and most advanced technology that the Republic had developed. It was undetectable at long range and its armament twice exceeded that of the capital ships used during the Jedi Civil war. That was if what Revan had overheard some of the Republic soldiers discussing was true and he suspected that it was.

He watched the ship floating in space as the small shuttle took him, Bastila and more than a dozen armed soldiers toward it. Kulhoun or the Republic, he didn't know which, had obviously seen fit to adjust the color scheme used by their forces as well. Instead of the soft hues previously used, _Bismarck _was coated in a silver-grey color, reminiscent of Sith craft. The Republic soldiers' armor was also of similar shades.

Six other, smaller ships rounded out the task force, all colored the same way, the Republic military emblem was stenciled into their sides. He could see why the colony of Derant had seen no other choice but to surrender to the Admiral, Kulhoun had bought a large enough force to cleanse the entire region of pirates. A noble goal such as that did not seem to be Kulhoun's agenda however, Revan wondered just exactly what his agenda was.

He looked at Bastila who stood solemnly, staring into space in front of her. She seemed to have recovered from whatever Kulhoun had done to her. He longed to talk to her, to hear her voice again, he wished he could see her smile. Somehow, he did not think that was very likely given their current circumstances. He once again felt regret and sadness at having left her all those years previously.

Unfortunately, he estimated that their chances of escape at that point were slim, their chances of getting a hold of any weapons were remote and the likelihood that Bastila would co operate if they did was equally remote. Even then, they would still be on a ship crewed by hundreds, sealed in a brig, probably with their wrists restrained behind their backs as they were then.

He looked at Bastila again and felt the biting sadness and regret that had overcome him during their previous confrontation. It was his fault, he knew, his failings that had led to their current situation, as well as her apparent fall to the darkside. It was a slippery slope, he knew, once one had tasted the darkside, it was something one found difficult to resist if presented with the temptation again.

Few dark Jedi were ever fully redeemed, his case was obviously an exception but even he had almost succumbed to temptation on top of the Rakatan temple, all those years before. Experience had taught him that love alone could redeem someone, it was the only thing that could give strength enough to defeat the darkside. _If only I had stayed, if only I had helped her. _So many regrets. He had thought at the time that the Jedi would protect her, he wondered why they had not. He hoped it was not too late for Bastila, the cold expression on her face indicated that it was, he prayed that she was not the same way within.

The shuttle touched down in _Bismarck_'s landing bay, Bastila and he were led away by an escort of several dozen soldiers, all armed. At no point in their journey were there less than ten guns pointing at each of them, Kulhoun was obviously not taking chances, Revan could see that he was arrogant but not a fool. Unfortunately, that boded even worse, no one was more dangerous than someone who was arrogant and intelligent, as the one time Dark Lord well knew.

They were both pushed into the same cell, which surprised them and they were even more startled when a soldier removed their cuffs. The soldier who did so backed out of the cell slowly while the others kept their weapons trained, a blue hued force field went up and then another went up half a meter behind the first. The soldiers then disappeared from Revan's view but he had no doubt that they would not be far away.

The cell was sparse, as could be expected; a small, completely exposed refresher unit was opposite a bench that served as a basic bed, a tap and drain below it completed the room's facilities. The walls featured absolutely no breaks or imperfections and certainly no hidden control panel for lowering the force fields, not that Revan had expected to find one, only low quality brigs were equipped with such things.

Bastila claimed the bench, which featured a thin mattress of sorts. She lay on it facing toward the wall and did not move. Revan sunk to the floor against the wall on the opposite side of the cell, he would have offered her his cloak if he still had it but the soldiers had confiscated most of his possessions. Besides, she did not look like she wanted to speak to him.

Nothing changed for an indiscriminate amount of time. Revan knew the journey to Coruscant would more than a week, if that were their destination. Instinct alone was telling him that it was, nothing else had indicated as much. Periodically a guard would enter the cell, one force field dropping at a time, and place a tray of dry rations on the ground before leaving again. Revan nibbled on the rations, which tasted like cardboard but hunger forced him to eat them. Bastila did not even stir.

After the third lot of rations had been delivered, which Revan guessed meant that the third day had passed, he finally spoke. He had been growing steadily more concerned about Bastila, especially given apparent refusal to eat.

"Bastila, you have to eat," he told her, she did not move. Revan picked up the latest tray, which he had not previously touched and carried it over to her. He put his hand on her shoulder intending to try and get her attention or wake her up but Bastila spun quickly and Revan soon found himself sprawled out on the floor, the contents of the tray were scattered around the room.

"Get away from me!" She yelled at him furiously.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Shut up!" Revan did. Perhaps there were people more dangerous than the likes of Kulhoun. He was relieved to see her pick up a ration that had dropped on her bed and take it with her when she rolled back over.

After the next tray was delivered, he cautiously moved it until it was right next to Bastila's bed and then left it. Some time later, after having woken from some uncomfortable sleep, he noted with relief that it had been emptied.

The next time after waking, he saw that only half the tray had been emptied and that it had been placed near to him. Revan devoured the awful rations, after several days with no food he had grown hungry indeed though the pitiful meal did little to curb his hunger.

After several trays of sharing food, Revan felt brave enough to attempt another interaction but not to go anywhere near her.

"Bastila, what is Kulhoun's plan?" he asked, she stirred slightly but did not respond.

"Bastila, please, tell me, I have to know."

"Bastila, I know you hate me but we're not going to escape unless we work together."

"Bastila, please just say something!"

"Shut up!"

"Alright, can you say something else?"

"I _hate_ you!"

"I know but please, we need to work together on this."

"I'd rather die."

"Well, from what I gather, whatever Kulhoun wants to do to us will be even worse."

Bastila was silent for a few moments and Revan worried that he had lost all chance of reconciling with her. He heard a sigh as she seemed to surrender to his logic, or perhaps decided that giving him an explanation would allow her some peace. Whatever the case, Revan was pleased she decided to speak to him and when she did so, her tone was somewhat more even.

"He will wipe our minds and use us to stage an attack on the Republic while controlling us and manipulating the war as he sees fit."

Revan was stunned.

"Why?"

"To make himself rich and powerful of course." Revan was beginning to understand; no doubt Kulhoun would cast himself as the courageous Admiral who had lead the Republic's forces to victory over those of the dreaded Darth Revan. It would be like a puppet show with Kulhoun pulling the strings except that real people would die. He somehow doubted that Kulhoun would concern himself with such things

"Why does he need us for that, why not just use fakes or something?"

"He already tried that, two years ago the Republic was attacked by 'Darth Revan' but it was found to be a hoax, Kulhoun managed to deflect responsibility but no one paid the conflict any interest once they knew it did not involve you."

"How come he's allowed to get away with that?"

"He probably has backing from the senate, perhaps he is even following their orders."

"What do you mean?"

"The Republic has changed. They have no morals anymore. They are after profit and nothing else, they have been staging wars for years, taxes have risen, a great war machine has developed, the senators and the military have been getting rich while everybody else suffers and dies."

"What about the Jedi?"

"The Jedi are dead, thanks to you. But I suppose it's not entirely your fault. The Sith Triumvirate were responsible for the actual death of the order."

"You mean there are no Jedi at all?"

"Well, there are Jedi. The companions of the Exile have formed an order of sorts but they are outlawed, the Republic hunts them mercilessly. They have allies, Carth Onasi helps them but they still are not able to influence things much. Though they do try."

"The Exile?"

"Yes, former General under your command, exiled after the Mandalorian war."

"Oh, her, I remember her, uhh, what was her name again?"

"It escapes me as well."

"Where is she?"

"Searching the unknown regions for you."

"What?"

"She believed there was a Sith Empire hiding out there."

"There isn't."

"So it seems."

"Why didn't you join them? The order I mean, or help Carth or something? What have you been doing all this time?" In an instant Bastila turned and looked at him, he saw fire and fury in her eyes, a malicious grin spread across her face. Revan had a sinking feeling, he did not like where the conversation was going. "Don't tell me you-"

Bastila stood slowly, even unarmed he saw that she still had the force, he was not sure that he would still be able to kill her if he had to, even if he wanted to. It had been a long time since he had practiced against someone that strong with the force. Lightning crackled around both of her clenched fists, she locked her vision on him like the targeting scope of a riffle.

She was much shorter and leaner than he was, although he was definitely quite lean as well, yep, no doubts about that. For once her hair was allowed to flow down her back, her body was a perfect shape. She was stunningly beautiful, the most attractive women he had ever seen, but he would have thought that whatever she looked like. Then Revan looked into her eyes, he saw pure hate.

"What? Fell to the darkside after you left? Have been hunting the Jedi order? Have been fighting the staged wars?"

Revan took a step backward.

"Bastila…"

"Does it surprise you Revan? Yes, for the past five years I have been a self styled Dark Lord of the Sith."


	12. Chapter 12

Hi everyone, this chapter sort of ballooned a bit too, so I decided to break it up as well. To be honest, I'm not completely sure about it, I've been fiddling with it for ages and I'm still not that happy but I've decided to post it now otherwise I might never. Let me know what you thought.

Cheers.

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Twelve.

A flood of hate and contempt had replaced her blood, her heart had shriveled up into a solid, black ball of fiery hate. The hate coursed through her veins, she felt it's intoxicating presence in every part of her, it wrapped around her like a warm blanket and bought darkside energies to her. Bastila felt as though every other being in the entire galaxy was insignificant, as if she could destroy them as she willed.

"Bastila, you are letting your hate control you, let go of it."

A distant part of her knew that he was right, that she could not allow her darkside to consume her as it was. The greater part of her did not care. Letting go of hate invited pain, anguish, guilt and loneliness to take its place. Pain was too difficult to face - hate was freedom. The darkside did not judge, nor did it come reluctantly.

"Why would I want to do that? To give you another opportunity to hurt me? Is that what you want?"

_That was what he wanted all along. You deserve no less than what you will get Revan._

"Bastila, I never wanted to hurt you, I'm sorry, please, you don't know what it was like," Revan was backing away slowly.

"You will not escape again Revan. You will die."

She lifted her arm, force lightening crackled around her hands, the dark energy was visible hate, her eyes burned with a hard intensity. Suddenly the light in the room turned red and instead of shocking Revan, Bastila felt herself being shocked. She cried out as an electrical charge shot painfully up and down her body.

"Force usage detected, initiating counter measures." A monotonical, computerized voice declared, then just as quickly as it had begun, the red light ended, as did the pain. Bastila found herself curled up on the ground, Revan rushed to her side.

"Bastila, are you alright?"

She felt hate surging up within her again like a wave of strength with no end. Hate was the reason she as a Sith didn't need to heal, healing was unnecessary when she had hate to sustain her. As it happened, healing would have been unnecessary in any case, the countermeasures had not injured her, only stunned her. She looked up at her mortal enemy and sneered.

_If I cannot kill you with the force, I will rip your head from your shoulders with my bare hands._

Her clenched fist flew at Revan's head and he barely avoided what would have been a powerful blow to his jaw. He jumped back and Bastila sprung to her feet then launched herself at him, hoping to get hold of his neck. Revan dodged sideward, Bastila landed like a cat and then stood, preparing for another attack.

"Calm down Bastila!"

She realized that he was right; she did need to calm down. So long as Revan was able to stay away from her, she had no means of attacking him without using the force. If she were going to get close enough to attack him, she realized she would need to be cunning about it. Bastila stood and waited as the maelstrom of hate inside her died down somewhat, giving her an opportunity to assess her options rationally. Revan watched her calmness collect itself and seemed to take it as an encouraging sign.

"Bastila, I never wanted to hurt you."

"Then why did you leave Revan?" She began to circle him slowly, trying to maneuver him into a corner so that she could attack, Revan seemed well aware of her plan and deftly kept himself away from her. Bastila knew that fitness was on her side, she could play cat and mouse for much longer than he could and strike with more power when she did. Despite her slender frame, her conditioning gave her strength to match most men blow for blow. She still did not feel quite at her peak since Hades but was confident that she retained the capacity to deal with the unfit but not fat Revan.

"You don't know what it was like," Revan answered regretfully, Bastila seized a possible opportunity to distract him into making a mistake.

"Then why don't you explain it to me."

"I… I kept seeing faces of people I killed, I guess it was guilt Bastila, I couldn't deal with it…" Revan looked down for a moment and Bastila pounced. She leapt across the room in an instant, her fists flying out, Revan looked up in time to see her coming and with equal dexterity was able to skip sideways, avoiding her. Bastila landed then stood and the game continued.

"Guilt, Revan? We all have guilt, I…" Her voice suddenly went horse. She saw the field of massacred bodies in her mind again and began to wonder how the loved ones of those she had killed would feel, their pain would be the same as hers, if not greater. She remembered having killed a young Sith many years previously and imaging the thoughts of that Sith's parents, wherever they were. He hadn't had the hate that many of the Sith from Malachor did, he could probably been saved if she'd had the time.

_They probably still grieve for him, maybe they bring a flower to his grave every year, remembering their lost son, a son whose life I ended._ Her anger dulled for just a second. _No! I won't let you trick me Revan! _She clenched her fists and jaw. _You deserve to _die_ for what you did to me! I _hate _you!_

She looked up at Revan who had been watching her internal conflict and seemed to realize the outcome.

"So you should be guilty Revan." She stated with slightly less conviction than before but resumed their game of cat and mouse. "Tell me; why aren't you feeling guilty now?"

Revan shrugged.

"I don't know, I guess I haven't really thought about it." He realized that seeing Bastila had caused his inattention. He began to think that perhaps he should always have been more concerned about those left than those killed. He looked into her burning eyes again, the fire seemed to have dimmed slightly but still raged beyond control.

_This isn't you Bastila, you're hiding below the surface, afraid to face the monster that is controlling you. I know that feeling, I was like that once too._ It was like drowning, he knew, all the fiery emotions swamped and smothered, it could be impossible to break free.

"Are the dead not still dead? Would they be dead if it weren't for your actions?" Bastila's hate filled words gave him a pang of guilt but for once, he was able to ignore it.

"The dead chose their own fate Bastila, it was the Mandalorians who declared war on the Republic and the Republic who decided to answer. Think about your fate Bastila, you know you are walking down the wrong path, you know it has only one end."

"You set me on this path Revan! It was your darkness that turned me!"

He once again cursed the inability of the Jedi to educate. _They needed to show you what the darkside actually was and then let you make your own decisions, had they taught you well enough you would know what to do. Instead, all they did was say 'avoid the darkside', how could they have expected you to fight something you knew nothing about?_ Only one of his teachers had ever understood that but Arren Kae had other problems._ It was the same for too many._ _Maybe I should have become a master._

"You made your own choices Bastila, just like Malak did."

"Ahh Malak, another 'friend' whose life you destroyed."

"Malak was never my friend, he and I both knew the Mandalorians needed to be stopped and so we worked together, we respected each other but we weren't friends. You, Carth and the others were the only friends I've ever had."

His memory chose that moment to remind him of the time he'd realized he finally had friends, one of the most pleasant moments of his life, although he had not realized any of that until later.

"I remember that time you used the force to push Mission over because she was hassling you, I laughed, I laughed until I ached, at the time I had no idea why I was doing that but later I realized that it was because that was the first time I ever _really _laughed. I'd pretended to laugh before, to be polite, my implanted memories had ones of laughter but really I hadn't ever, truly laughed until then."

"You've been doing a fine Revan impersonation, _Jolee_, but I see you could not resist-" Whatever else she had meant to say was cut off by Revan bursting into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. He was gambling his life and he knew it, but that was what Revan always did and he always won. Except once.

Bastila watched the laughing Revan and tightened her fists, her muscles clenched but did not move, she knew that the opportunity to strike him had arrived. One swift blow to his head would be enough to disorientate him and from there, his only escape would be death. She saw it happen in her mind, mapped out her every move, planed every blow but when it came time to begin her strike, she found herself unable to do it. It was as if her muscles had decided that her mind was wrong, that they could not obey.

"…and I used to hate his rambling too!" Revan yelled between fits of laughter.

Bastila's inability to act frustrated and angered her but it was not a furious, hateful anger, it was a regretful, self-loathing anger. As she watched Revan laugh, she could not help but feel jealous and sad, her hate felt suffocating. Distantly she began to wonder how she had gone from the person who force pushed Mission that day, to the one she was then. In some ways, she wished she could go back.

_Actually_, she privately admitted, _that was quite funny_.

Despite her fury having melted somewhat, she refused to allow the humor of the situation to affect her outwardly but she knew she could not glare Revan to death either, not without the force. She resigned to herself that she was not going to win and skulked back to her bunk feeling, hateful, angry, sad and deflated.

_I hate you for being so… forgiving._

"Well, all we need to do now is figure out a way to escape." Revan said after eventually having recovered from his laughing fit. If his intention had been to provoke Bastila into replying despite herself, he had succeeded.

"Do not presume to have subdued me _Revan_." She all but spat his name, her lingering fury channeled into her voice. "Besides, the point is moot, there will be no escape."

Revan's disagreement was an abstract thought, as he looked at her he could not help but think how appealingly cozy it would be on the bench for the two of them, however he did not dare suggest the idea. Instead, he sunk back down the wall into his previous spot, the muscles in his rear were terribly sore from days of sitting, but he had experienced far worse pain before. The quite elation he felt at having talked Bastila down made his sore muscles seem insignificant.

"We'll see," he replied after his musings had reached a conclusion, "I get the feeling that an opportunity will present itself, their guard will at it's lowest near the end when they think they have won."

--

The _Bismarck_ was Fleet Admiral Dain Kulhoun's personal heavy battle cruiser, tasked solely with taking him wherever he wanted, whenever. It did not see a lot of use and was considered an unfortunate posting but nonetheless was always fully staffed, even if other ships were not.

Large, lavish quarters surrounded Kulhoun as he reclined, a sever droid was on hand to supply him with any drink or food he desired, while a scantily clad, Twi'lek slave girl gently massaged his feet. A grateful smile hid the pent up fury that she held but would never express, she knew that to do so would mean death, even though life was only a marginally better option.

"Fleet Admiral," his serving droid interrupted Kulhoun's relaxation, a nearby blaster pistol was ready to destroy the droid should it not have an adequate reason for its interruption. "An encrypted communication is being broadcast to you from the Grand Admiral."

Kulhoun put the pistol down and groaned. Grand Admiral Mark Sparren was the Supreme Commander of the Galactic Fleet, a position considered roughly equal in influence to the Supreme Chancellor. The Grand Admiral was the only man Kulhoun answered to, something he intended to change.

"Begin," Kulhoun ordered, a small, blue hologram of Sparren appeared.

"Kulhoun." Sparren stated coldly.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, sir?" Kulhoun replied with just a hint of sarcasm. He utterly detested the need to address someone as 'sir'. _Soon, very soon, that will change, _he reminded himself.

"Do you have the packages?"

"Yes."

"I don't want you taking any risks with this Kulhoun, we can't afford another mistake like last time. You were lucky then but you won't get a second chance."

"No risks are being taken, I doubt the Jedi would be foolish enough to strike on Coruscant itself and even if they are, I will be ready for them. They will not spoil our plans a second time."

"You would be the fool to underestimate them Kulhoun, you know they have access to even the highest level of our information, that they have someone on the inside."

"It's clear that Onasi is their inside man, it's just a shame he's the one man we can't touch. Did you not make sure he is otherwise disposed at the moment?"

Carth Onasi was the lone figure of authenticity within fleet command, without him the fleet would have absolutely no credibility with the greater Republic. Already it was difficult enough to attract recruits, the fuel of the ever-hungry military machine. Even the staged wars were loosing their effectiveness at garnering support, in terms of both recruits and credits. _Revan will change that, once I defeat him I will be the one people look up to, then I can get rid of Onasi and Sparren, _Kulhoun pondered.

"Be that as it may Kulhoun, you must take absolutely no chances with this." _You will be the one blamed for failure_, Sparren did not say. Kulhoun was unaware that the Grand Admiral had everything set up for Kulhoun himself to receive complete blame should the plan fall through. Fear of failure was why Sparren was not handling things personally but incidentally, he also intended to take the credit should Kulhoun succeed. That would give him even more influence than the Supreme Chancellor and make him in effect, the leader of the Republic, an effective situation he would soon make official.

"Measures are in place to cover all possibilities Admiral, I assure you," Kulhoun replied, meaning more than what he said.


	13. Chapter 13

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Thirteen.

_Bismarck _and its escort slipped into orbit over Coruscant, displacing other traffic in the heavily congested area of space. That other traffic were certainly not happy about the idea but knowing they had no other choice, did not protest. In their cell, Bastila and Revan noticed no apparent change as the ship dropped out of hyperspace but sensed that it had done so. A lifetime of hyperspace travel gave birth to such a sense.

The small army returned to escort the two from their cell but seemed afraid to do that before cuffing them. Revan gave Bastila a reassuring nod, she returned it with a scowl.

_I hate you. I do hate you._

They soon found themselves aboard a medium sized transport craft, along with thirty or so soldiers, again blasters were pointed directly at the former Jedi, too many for them to deflect or dodge, even if they both had lightsabers. Another passenger also joined them, one that not even the soldiers were aware of, only Revan could sense the extra passenger. He thought about telling the soldiers but decided not to, any sort of firefight in the cramped quarters of the ship would not be good. He nonetheless remained aware of their cloaked companion.

Bastila meanwhile studied the planet's vista once it came into view; it was impressive as always, although on that occasion Bastila could not help but feel bizarrely out of place, having always thought of Coruscant as the capital of the _free_ galaxy. She knew that such a galaxy no longer existed, as her current circumstances were testament to, it was almost as if she had expected the atmosphere to cloud over, the buildings to rust and a malevolent light to take prominence. It seemed inappropriate that the planet should be the same as it had always been. Well, it was not quite the same.

A massive spire, one that dwarfed all others, grew as they approached it. Bastila cast a guilty glance in the direction of the Jedi temple, which she knew was all but derelict. For once, she wished the council still sat there.

_For all their faults, they would've prevented the corrupt senators from passing the ban of Jedi and stopped them from blaming the attack on Telos on the Jedi. _The propaganda wave that had convinced the greater galaxy of the Exile's guilt in the Telos attack had led to the ban passing. Nothing had been able to stop the power hungry senators after that, _despite our best efforts. _She remembered the anarchy that had erupted as supporters and haters of the Jedi had clashed while the senate debated the ban, in some way it might have been better had the Exile not inspired so many loyal supporters, unfortunately, her haters had marginally greater numbers.

Her guilt forced her to fall back on hate.

_Those pathetic fools deserved to die for what they did to me, they were as bad as Revan._

Their craft entered the towering headquarters of the military, yet more soldiers waited on the landing pad to meet Bastila and Revan. The number guarding them rose to around fifty as they were taken through the buildings interior.

After a short, tense walk, Bastila was ushered into a small, transparent holding cell while many of the soldiers led off Revan. Strangely, his sudden absence worried her; for reasons she was finding it difficult to understand, she found herself secretly wishing they had not been separated. His presence was a distraction that she needed but also, she realized that she'd felt a little more reassured when he had been there, as if she had trusted him to find a way out and to take her with him.

_Just who are you keeping your wish a secret from?! _She felt herself assailed by more self-loathing anger. _He is a fool! If I never see him again I'll be… happy?_

Men and woman wearing white coats began to replace the soldiers. Bastila felt her apprehension building. She knew that the procedure she was about to be subjected to was unlikely to be painless, she also realized that afterward, she would be little more than a puppet, completely willing to do Kulhoun's bidding. Revan was in the same situation.

_No, that's not worrying. Revan deserves this fate, _she reminded herself. Somehow, she didn't quite believe it, even as she told herself she did.

Once again she tried to mask her apprehension with hate but even that seemed to melt in the face of what she saw before her, and Revan. Bastila considered using the force to free herself but realized that whatever had prevented her doing so aboard the ship would no doubt be in place there as well.

_Wouldn't it be better to try anyway? _She knew that it would although probably no amount of trying would be enough. _Face it. I'll never escape this, it's not possible. I have done impossible things before though, why is this any different? _Revan's earlier advice to wait until the last moment returned to her, she had to admit it made sense, surprise would count in her favor.

Presently, a group wearing white coats came and took her from the cell then led her up another hallway. She watched as what was clearly an intricate laboratory passed her, a multitude of various pieces of scientific equipment, droids and various other things filled rooms that she passed. For a second she thought she caught a glimpse of a certain astrometric droid that seemed more than familiar but when she looked again it was gone. She blinked and shook her head. _I'm imagining things already._

She was taken into a room that featured a wall of complex equipment, sitting next to that was a table, one clearly was designed to restrain whoever was placed on it. On that occasion it would be her, she knew. A dome with various cords and cables leading to the equipment sat in the hands of a solemn lab assistant who stood near the head end of the table. Other lab assistants operated various other parts of the equipment, in all there were eight.

Bastila suddenly felt odd as she was laid on the table, the lab assistants hurried to restrain her arms and legs to it while the one holding the dome placed it over her head. Somehow, her fear had evaporated. _I am… very likely, about to die, _she realized in a moment of clarity, _well, my body will live on but my mind will be dead._ She could no longer feel hate, fear, anger or any other emotion clouding her judgment, she was not sure what had bought that on but she was grateful for it. It seemed, at the end, she would be able to evaluate her life with a clear mind.

She thought of all the people she had met, she thought about her masters, she thought about her parents, her mother her father. She remembered her father's smile and approving nod, she remembered feeling comfortable and contented in his arms, despite the poverty in which they had lived. As she thought about all the things she had done, one thing jumped out at her repeatedly; _it shouldn't be over. _She thought about Revan. She had felt the same contentment in his arms.

_Could it be possible? _She wondered as the noise of computers and equipment powering up and activating increased, even though the dome covering her head muffled it all. A dull ache was forming in the back of her skull. _Do I still… Love him?_

She remembered his smile, she remembered waking next to him then having a pillow fight to determine who would make up the bed, she remembered how he had subtly allowed her to win it but then later volunteered her to watch the younglings for Master Vandar. She remembered how the space between his arm and chest seemed created for her to lie in comfort and how the warmth of his body felt against hers. _But I hate him! He left me! _She realized that she must have first loved him for his leaving to make her hate him. She also understood guilt; she realized that she had made hating him a way of avoiding it.

She knew she did not have much time to decide, at the same time she knew that no amount of thinking about it would tell her. Whether she wanted to find out was the question. _But I've done so much, killed so many, surely he doesn't want me now, I'm evil, I'm hateful, I'm a fool._

In the end, a statement she had heard, but could not remember from where, decided her conflict. If she had thought about it, she may have associated it with Canderous, since it seemed to describe his attitude quite accurately. Canderous would have thrived were it he who was there. Battles where there was no hope of victory seemed to excite him.

_Death or glory._

She felt a new determination welling up inside her and summoned the force, which, like a loyal dog returning to its master, came eagerly to her once again. She felt herself surrounded by force energies, they flowed soothingly through her body, it was only later that she realized she was no longer drawing on the darkside.

As it happened, the dome was attached directly to her most powerful force conducting organ; her mind. Electric charges passed from her head, into the machinery and an instant later Bastila heard explosions and chaos, she used the force to send the dome flying off her head and looked around, the lab assistants were scattered by shock and fear. With what finger gestures her bounds allowed, she sent equipment flying in the most disruptive ways possible, the lab assistants were desperately trying to escape the room, shouting hurriedly to each other and yelling in fear.

"Where are the force countermeasures?!" One cried desperately.

"That astrometric droid disabled them!" Another replied, Bastila looked in the direction he indicated and was most grateful for what she saw.

"T3!" She called out enthusiastically. She could not remember being as please to see the distinctive droid since it had released them on _Leviathan_. By that stage most of the lab assistants had escaped, "what are you doing here?"

Beeping and whirring to be the answer to her question, none of which Bastila understood. Once the terrified lab assistants had vacated the room, T3, who had attached himself to a part of the equipment that seemed undamaged, was able to close and lock the door to the room.

Bastila guessed it would not be long before soldiers swarmed the area but thanks to T3, it seemed they would have a little time. The laboratory door appeared quite solid and without being able to open them, she imagined a soldering torch would take several minutes to cut it open. T3's console seemed to give it access to the computer itself.

Bastila pulled on the restraints that still held her ankles and wrists, they were motorized and she realized that T3 had not unlocked them. Her initial enthusiasm at having seen T3 deflated, only then did it occur to her that T3's presence did not mean liberty. She had spent the past four years trying to kill him after all.

The droid continued to operate the computer system and she soon saw that it was printing words onto an undamaged screen, which was near by.

"Where is Revan?" T3's screen asked.

"I'm not sure," she answered, "please release me and we can look for him."

"Maybe, but first watch this." T3 replied.

The astrometric droid generated a small holo-recording, which Bastila recognized after a few moments, it was Mission Vao. She felt a strange sense of pride at seeing how much Mission had obviously developed, gone was the pushy and at times insecure but resourceful teenager, in her place was a woman who appeared bright, intelligent and happy. Bastila could not help but be jealous of her happiness.

"Revan? I hope you're seeing this, T3 show this to Revan if you find him okay? Good." Mission's hologram was saying. Bastila got the sense that Mission had lost none of her capacity to talk continuously.

"Why are you showing me this?" Bastila asked.

"Just watch it." T3 replied.

"It would've been easier if I could hack into the military HQ's mainframe so we could talk properly but it's an enclosed system, not even I could hack through those firewalls, well, I could but not without being traced and probably not fast enough either, well, maybe I could."

The holo-recording turned to an invisible figure behind it.

"Hey Big Z, are you sure I can't just hack into the mainframe?" A series of growling noises followed, Mission turned back, "apparently it's too dangerous, anyway, I'll try and keep this brief; lots of things have changed since you left. Oh yeah, Jedi are illegal so keep yourself hidden, all the good Senators were killed off during the civil war – not the Jedi civil war by the way, they called it the Galactic Civil war. It was awful, Dantooine, Onderon, Manaan all got bombed to heck cos they supported the Jedi, as if we hadn't gone through enough wars-"

A series of growling interrupted the blue hologram, Bastila took the opportunity to question T3.

"Why are you showing me this T3, I already know all of it."

"Just keep watching." T3 replied, Bastila tugged on her restraints again, she did not exactly have a choice anyway. Unfortunately there was no force power that destroyed solid metal, well none that she commanded at any rate.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Mission was saying, "Big Z says I should hurry up, if you see Bastila, watch out, something happened to her and she started fighting for the wrong side…" Bastila shuddered with guilt "… we're worried about her, it's like she turned evil all of a sudden for no reason…"

_There was a reason all right. _

"… anyway, I've been talking to Dustil, he said Atton, Visas and Mira coming for you, you'll have Jedi back up real soon…"

Blaming Revan once again seemed hollow.

_It was… my fault._

"… so hopefully you'll come find us, I have a feeling that, now you're back, everything's going to be fine…"

Suddenly she felt more alive than she had for some time, she realized that she had made mistakes but she also knew that making amends for those mistakes was more important than worrying. Revan had taught her that.

_I have to find him!_

"T3, please, release me, I have to find Revan we are running out of time, they may have mind wiped him already!" _Force! Please, protect him!_

"Are you sure I can trust you?" T3 wrote.

"Yes! Please!"

With a click, the mechanisms locked around her writs and ankles opened, Bastila practically flew from the table, rubbing the soreness around her wrists as she did but paying it little heed. She would have run straight for the door and surged out into the hallway unarmed if T3's beeping had not made her turn.

"You will need these." The screen showed, from a special compartment somewhere within T3 a pair of light sabers emerged. Bastila grabbed them with the force and ignited them in her hands, blue blades hummed into life, they were Revan's she knew. "I will open the door." T3 said, and then did.

A group of soldiers had clearly been attempting to cut the door open, they were shocked to suddenly be confronted by twin lightsabers in the hands of a determined Jedi. Bastila pressed her advantage with a powerful force wave and several of them flew back, she fell upon the rest and the battle ended fast, the surviving soldiers retreated.

She felt Revan's presence through their force bond - he was alive but weak. She redoubled her efforts and charged through the hallways, allowing the soldiers she encountered to only barely slow her. The defenders were unorganized and had difficulty keeping track of her location, a situation that would quickly change, she knew.

_I don't have much time._

Just as she had finished dealing a group of soldiers, she suddenly sensed that she was in mortal danger. Her finely tuned instincts were able to deduce that any major threat would likely attack her from behind, she didn't receive any other clues. Bastila swung around just just in time to block some powerful, invisible attack with her light sabers. She realized they had been hit by vibroblades.

A stealth device shimmered in front of her and before Bastila could make any other moves, a blow that felt like a battle ship hit her chest, knocking the wind from her lungs, another such strike followed on her jaw and Bastila would later be surprised that it did not break. She was then picked up like a toy and thrown several meters, she landed painfully and rolled to a stop before slowly beginning to scrape herself off the hard, metal ground. A task that seemed all but impossible, she expected a killing blow to follow quickly but it did not.

"Bastila Shan, we met at last." A voice that sounded very much like a snake announced. She lifted her spinning head and vaguely saw the outline of a black, cloaked figure standing high above her, gold symbols decorated both his cloak and vicious looking vibroblades. Some sort of decorations dangled down from the handles of his nasty looking weapons.

Without too many options while she was disorientated and weak, Bastila decided that attack was the best defense, she raised her hand and summoned the force. Lightning shot toward her attacker but he crossed his swords in front of him and she saw that somehow, they absorbed the attack and sent it to the metal floor via the strange decorations. She also deduced that he was wearing rubber soled footwear as he seemed unaffected by the electrocuted ground, she was not so lucky. She quickly broke off the attack.

"Your pathetic Jedi tricks won't work on me Bastila." She noted that he had no force presence at all, she tried a force wave but he was unaffected by that as well, apparently able to dodge it. _How is that possible?!_

"Who are you?" She all but gasped as the air slowly began returning to her lungs.

"My name is Motten." He hissed, "but from now on, you shall call me 'master'."


	14. Chapter 14

Author's note:

Okay, so here's the next chapter, I hope you all like it. Damn, this storey just keeps growing and growing, I thought there was only going to be like 12 chapters but here I am at chapter 14 and I still have a couple more. I'm kind of keen to get it finished now so I can start my next storey but I certainly don't want to only half do this one.

Big thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, you guys are awesome. One thing I would like to know is who is everyone's most _hated_ villain from this storey? Mine is Kulhoun, he's a dick. Although I certainly wouldn't want to meet Motten.

**A warning; this chapter is kind of graphic in places. Please do not read it if you are disturbed by images of violence and blood and/or perverted, blood/death-phials (is a word?) people who get off on death anyway. This is meant to be an interesting storey and in no way meant to condone this sort of behavior.  
**

Cheers.

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Fourteen.

Her chest burned, her mind was in a haze.

_There must be a way out of this, there has to be._

Bastila struggled to her hands and knees, gasping for breath. Motten's latest assault had left her weak and disorientated, she struggled to block out the pain and forced her body to move. She had not had a chance to recover after Motten's surprise attack.

_I need time_.

"You can end this at any time you like Bastila, one word and this pain will stop." Motten kneeled next to her as she slowly raised herself to face him, sweat and blood mingled on her forehead, her breaths were short, sharp and determined. She gritted her teeth.

"Go to hell you bastard."

Motten's fist delivered a hard, swift response. She found herself on the ground again, blood was gushing out of a painful wound in her mouth, it spilled out onto the floor leaving its taste on her tong and its smell in her nostrils. Bastila struggled to move herself again, she was having trouble determining up from down, nonetheless she persevered.

_Revan, I will find you, I have to find you._

She could feel the force, she knew that if she were somehow able to distract him long enough for her to heal, she may then be able to fight him in earnest. She had already tried several times but Motten had hit her and broken her concentration. She needed more time.

They were in a long, narrow hallway with doors to laboratories opening out periodically, through a near by door she saw a trolley of equipment. Limp bodies of soldiers were scattered around the ground. She had dropped both of her weapons during Motten's attack but fortunately, the glowing blue sticks were difficult to miss, even in her disorientated state.

It was unlikely that any more soldiers would appear, T3 had somehow disabled the buildings interior sensors and its size and complexity meant that even a large force would take some time to locate them.

_Where has that damn droid gone?_ She had not seen it for several minutes.

"One word and you can end this. I am your master; you merely need to address me as such." Motten stated. She struggled to comprehend how he seemed so immune to the force, as if he existed in a separate pocket of the galaxy where it did not. She knew that was impossible but she had no time to try to figure it out.

_I'll just have to do this the hard way._

The assassin knelt down next to her again and reached toward her neck, Bastila used the force to draw one her lightsabers to her but Motten had anticipated the move, he grabbed her wrist before she could use the weapon.

The Jedi struggled against him but it was a loosing battle, Motten was much stronger than she was and he easily lifted her arm and forced her onto her back. Bastila resisted the urge to cry out in pain as she heard several of her joints crackling and buckling under pressure. She gritted her teeth and fought back with every once of strength she could muster.

She summoned her other lightsaber to her free hand and it flew through the air toward her until Motten was somehow able to hit it away with a swipe of his fist. It clattered to the ground across the hallway. His free arm whipped out and she felt his hand wrap around her neck, she instinctively gripped his wrist in a vein attempt to release herself but Motten's grip on her neck, like that on her other wrist, was unbreakable. He leaned toward her and whispered, she could feel her face going red, she was rapidly running out of energy. Her lungs were on fire.

"I will teach you the meaning of pain, you will shatter between my fingers."

Motten stood and lifted her into the air by her neck, she could see his lower jaw as he did, his skin was sickly pale with dried blood painted onto the corners of his mouth. A serrated, metallic saw had replaced his teeth and he seemed to have blood instead of saliva. She struggled meekly, in desperation and repulsion, clinging to his wrist and lifting herself to give a slight amount of relief.

The hopelessness of her situation was beginning to overwhelm her but only momentarily, _I will not let this end like this; you will not stop me Motten. _She would not let her last chance at happiness slip from her grasp. She thought about Revan and in the recesses of her mind was able to sense his life force through their bond although her connection to the force was rapidly diminishing, as was her grip on consciousness.

Remembering her Jedi training, she forced serenity upon herself, an effort that took almost inhuman amounts of willpower but Bastila's Jedi instincts, ingrained from years of training, responded to her summons and allowed her to subdue her fear and desperation. She forced her body to stop its futile struggles; she knew that she had only a very limited amount of time and energy.

Motten's vibroblade was on his belt and knowing she only had one chance, Bastila wrapped both of her legs around his chest, let go of his wrist and reached out below her. For a second it seemed as though the blade was still just a little too far but she moved her hand sideways and found it, wrapping her fingers around the handle, she drew the assassin's blade out of its sheath.

Motten realized that with both his hands occupied, he was defenseless and let go of her then pushed her away before she had a chance to strike him. She hit the ground hard but even in her state, raised her eyes and fixed him in her vision as she stubbornly started to pick herself up again. She was beyond the limit of endurance but she didn't care.

"You are a determined one but I will make you mine Bastila, you will see." Motten was circling her, he had not even bothered to draw his other blade.

"Better than you have tried," she replied with conviction, her capacity to speak with authority had not quite returned.

"But they didn't know you like I do Bastila, I know everything about you, I have studied you for these past few weeks, I know all your moves, everything about your technique, there is nothing you can do that will surprise me Bastila."

Clutching her side, where she suspected at least one of her ribs was broken, she slowly drew herself shakily onto her feet while Motten looked on with amusement. She was completely unsure what motivated him, he certainly wasn't interested in killing her since he could easily have done that but seemed to be getting a real lift out of watching her struggle.

The way he looked at her, it was as if her found her pain erotic. He was sick. It didn't matter.

"Study this." She replied through gritted teeth and with one hand threw the blade at him, with her other she used what force power she could to drive the trolley at him as well, that she was able to hurl the blade with such force surprised her but regardless, it flew at him. Motten's concentration was devoted entirely to the blade and he successfully picked it out of the air but he was unprepared for the trolley. It bowled into him at high speed and knocked him across the hallway before the equipment that had been resting on it dropped on him.

Bastila summoned the force once again and although she was weak, it came to her. Like she was standing under a warm shower after a cold night, she drenched herself with healing energies, pain washed off her like dirt. She felt herself becoming stronger, her vision and focus returned and at last, she knew she was ready to fight. The force flowed around her and within her, she could feel her connection with it returning in its entirety. She felt Revan's presence again, she could not tell where but she knew he was alive and himself, that was all she needed. She collected her lightsabers.

_Time to kick some ass. _She didn't know quite where the comment came from but it seemed appropriate.

"Impressive," Motten appraised, having extracted himself from the equipment. He pushed his arms out of his large, black cloak, it fell off his shoulders and pooled on the ground. His face was pale and eyes his eyes were blood red, a thin layer of pointy, black hair covered his head, his smirk was toxic. He wore light battle armor.

"You're more determined than I anticipated…" his snake like voice had dropped off, almost to a purr, "but that only makes me want you more."

Bastila thinned her eyes, "what kind of a demented…"

"Soon, you will know, your every action will revolve around pleasing me Bastila."

"I don't think so."

The assassin drew his weapons and took a fighting stance, the steel made a hissing sound as the blades left their sheaths. Bastila hadn't seen the weapons properly before, they looked very deadly, gold symbols decorated the blades. She activated her own weapons and the sapphire lightsabers hummed to life, she swung them around in the air a few times, re-familiarizing herself with the two saber, form seven stance. She preferred a single double-blade but was just as proficient at fighting with two.

Their eyes locked as they stood silently staring at each other for several seconds, the low hum of Bastila's lightsabers the only sound. Neither of them so much as twitched, each silently daring the other to make the first move, to open themselves up by making that first strike. Bastila's muscles tensed, her brow creased.

_The force fights with me. Use it. _She did, when Motten's attack suddenly came, she was ready. He jumped at her and swung his blade in an aggressive stroke, an intense duel erupted.

Motten attacked furiously, his blades were silver lightning as they cut the air at speeds almost too fast for the eye to see. He moved them in somewhat crude yet efficient strokes and in most situations, he would have overwhelmed an opponent. Bastila though was able to hold her own, her skill was born out years of practice, not just at fighting but at things such as remaining calm, anticipation and strategy. Jedi were keepers of the peace but they well knew that to do so required the ability to back up words with force. Just by being as powerful as they were, they often avoided conflict all together. Bastila was no exception.

She confidently absorbed Motten's attacks, he asked questions, his blades would try to slip past her defenses in one area and then another. He dodged, spun and attacked, ducked, parried, attacked. Bastila was ready for him at every strike. Footwork was as important as where your sabers where, she knew, her feet and sabers moved in union, both always perfectly placed to assist the other. Her lithe body was a weapon itself, her sabers were just an extension; the sting in the scorpion's tail. Her face was locked in an expression of pure determination; her mind was her most powerful weapon.

A slight scowl was forming on Motten's face. He broke off his attack.

"Your look of concentration is…" He breathed in as if inhaling pleasure. "…Intoxicating."

He attacked again, seemingly unconcerned by the rapidly emerging fact that he was not quite as good as Bastila. She was fast, too fast, her humming blue sabers met Motten's blades at every strike. At that stage, she had only been absorbing his attacks; she was yet to make a real strike herself. Motten was ginning as he moved, she had the sense that he was more admiring her than feeling confident. He was one sick man.

_I've had just about enough of him._

She suddenly switched to the offensive and almost blew Motten away with just a few strikes. Despite having claimed to know Bastila's technique, he simply was not good enough to use that as an advantage. She didn't throw everything at him to start with, her attacks were somewhat cautionary but Motten had no answers, he began to frown again as he took several steps back, his own assault was forgotten, he was forced to concentrate on keeping himself alive. The look of fierce but controlled determination in her eyes and gritted teeth matched the grace and skill with which she moved.

The frown on the assassin's jaw deepened, he could find no way past her defenses and he slowly backed up the hallway. Bastila's sabers rained on him from everywhere, the glowing blue blades multiplied, growing into a field that surrounded him, pushed in on him from every angle. Motten knew that every warrior had inferiors, equals and betters; the truly masterful were those who knew what to do when they did find themselves on the loosing side. In a way he was pleased, it had been some time since his last true test and her determination only increased his desire for her.

In a risky attempt to get out of the loosing position, Motten parried two of her strikes then rolled back, one of her lightsabers missed his upper arm by mere centimeters as the duel broke. Motten had the chance to take stock of the situation, it was then that he realized he was not going to loose.

Instead of advancing on him and pressing her advantage, Bastila found that she needed to take the time to regain her breath. The week or so that she had spent unconscious and recovering from Hades had left her without true battle fitness, she knew that if she couldn't end the fight quickly, Motten would win through endurance.

"Getting tired Bastila?" He taunted and chuckled, he was breathing heavily also but he was in a much better state than his opponent.

"You cannot win Motten," she countered, "if you surrender, I will spare you."

The corner of Motten's lips snaked upward.

"Fascinating isn't it Bastila; death. There is no greater pleasure of the body than all things death. I bath in death, I was born to kill and doing so for me is… euphoric. As you stand there in only your flimsy medical gown, worn down after a few moments of battle, you know as I do that the next one of us to die will not be me but before then Bastila, I will have your body and your mind. When death finally meets you Bastila, you will be as grateful for it as I, you will die nothing but a bloodless, soulless husk and then you will be even more beautiful than you are now."

He drank in the sight of her exposed body as he spoke, Bastila was utterly repulsed, she had no reply. She would be doing the galaxy a favor by removing him from it she knew, though those thoughts would only lead her back to the darkside. _No one is beyond redemption, I _have_ to believe it. From now on I will fight and live as a Jedi. _Her anger and hate died with that thought.

"Give up, Motten."

"As you said 'I don't think so'."

The assassin charged at her but Bastila was immediately prepared. She blocked both of his next strikes as she moved herself into a position where she could attack him from side on, Motten was only just able to save himself from her next two strikes but it cost him all of his momentum and he was defending desperately once again.

Their weapons moved with awesome speed, the blue lightsabers parted the air with a low hum and danced in the hands of their experienced operator. Motten struggled to keep her sabers away from him, at times she all but pushed him off balance and he fell backwards for a few moments before being able to recover his footing. She forced him up the hallway at an ever-increasing rate but somehow, Motten was able to keep her from ending the fight even though that seemed more like dumb luck than skill in several instances.

Had they fought before Hades, the battle may have been rather short and one sided. If Bastila had been able to maintain the speed and efficiency that she initially used, it would only have been a matter of time before a gap would have opened in Motten's defenses. Instead, Bastila's slowing movements gave Motten more and more of the initiative, soon he began to take the fight to her and forced Bastila onto the defensive. Then she started taking backward steps, which though like her movements were graceful and controlled, her tired limbs were unable to maintain the pace at which the battle was being fought.

Inevitably, it happened. A small hole appeared in Bastila's defense, he forced her lightsabers into a position that enabled Motten to strike past them. Her skill was such that that this gap did not enable him to bring his blades to bare, he was only able to temporarily drop one of his weapons and once again line up a blow to her jaw that although glancing, rocked her back. She fell to the ground but had the sense of mind to discard her weapons as she did, falling on them was the last thing she wanted to do.

She rolled backward as she fell and jumped to her feet again but then was only able to pull one of her weapons back to her ready to face his next strike. Motten lazily swung one of his blades, forcing her to parry and giving him an opening for his next attack, he could have killed her then had he wanted to but that was not his intention, at least at that stage. Instead, he once again punched her in the stomach, forcing her to double forward, it was then simple for him to backhand her across her face, effectively ending the fight.

Her last lightsaber clattered across the hallway again, Motten grinned as the adrenaline still flowed throughout his body, he had been having the time of his life. It was disappointing that the fight was over really, although fortunate for him, he doubted that he would have lasted much longer.

She hard ground caught her like another blow. Bastila did not get up, instead slowly began to scrape herself off the metal floor. Motten kicked her viciously in her side, she yelled in pain and rolled onto her back in a futile attempt to escape him, he took another step toward her and planted his boot on her neck. She meekly tried to push him away but was comply overpowered, after several moments of futile struggle and chocked gasps, she passed into a state of semi consciousness. Her brain once again was starved of the oxygen it needed.

She felt detached somewhat as Motten knelt beside her, she was completely exhausted and beaten, sweat covered her, she panted and gasped, sucking air into her reddened, prone form.

Motten looked over her slowly, he admired her body as he admired her spirit but he enjoying breaking both.

"You fought bravely but you should have known you would never win," he told her and gently stroked her cheek. Bastila's mind was out of touch with the galaxy, she stirred but was unable to resist.

He sheathed one of his blades and used the other the slice from the neckline of her tattered medical gown downward, he cut a deep gash in her as he sliced the last of her clothing. The intense pain penetrated her mind and she writhed weakly and cried out as he cut her, blood gushed out of the wound and ran down both sides of her body. Bastila tried to use her hands to stop the blade but quickly pulled them back as they too were cut and began to bleed.

"So beautiful…" Motten parted the gown. He tossed the sword aside, knowing he no longer needed it and enjoyed the sight before him.

Bastila was barely aware as he took a hold just under her jaw, he lifted her head toward him and turned it aside, presenting her neck. He opened his mouth and leaned down, Bastila's eyes shot open, she screamed in pain as his metallic teeth sank into her neck, piercing her skin and muscle.

She struggled as best she could, efforts that amounted only to meek shuddering which Motten ignored as he lapped up the blood flowing out of the wound on her neck. Nothing had ever tasted sweeter to the assassin, he bit in deeper and was rewarded by an even greater flow of liquid, which he hurriedly sucked into his grateful throat.

The haze that had enveloped Bastila's energy deprived mind lifted enough for her to sense her surroundings once again. Motten's grip on her neck was extremely painful but it left him a little bit vulnerable and seemed to distract him. In his enthusiasm and passion, he ignored her hand as it desperately reached out and groped around randomly in a search for some sort of weapon. Finally, her fingers wrapped around cold steal and despite the fact that the razor sharp blade dug into her, cutting more deep gashes, she soon found the handle of Motten's discarded sword. Her grip on it tightened.

With all the strength she could muster, she swung the blade around and plunged it into his chest. The blade sank into him and slipped through his body, quickly protruding from his back. Bastila didn't stop pushing until the guard of the vibrosward rested against his chest, she then fell back as Motten dropped her, she had no strength of her own. Her eyes slowly closed and her mind began to drift, blood continued to gush out of her neck and chest, pooling around her. She fell into unconsciousness.

Motten failed to comprehend what was happening to him. He realized that his own blade had impaled him but that knowledge did not explain why he felt a mind blowing, searing, burning sensation or why his strength seemed to flow out of him like his blood. He looked down at the weapon buried in his chest, then at Bastila's unconscious, bleeding body and realization began to dawn on him.

_This… is what I was doing to them?!_

He thought of the faces of his victims, the agony in their eyes, the feeling of agony in his own body.

_This is how it feels?!_

Instinctively he wrapped his fingers around the handle of the blade and began to withdraw it from his chest but the pain became so intense he was unable to bear it. He cried in agony and felt tears burning his cheeks.

_What have I done!? I'm… I'm a monster!_

He realized what he had made his victims feel and it sickened him, he felt disgusted by his own actions. His body was no longer able to support him and fell onto his side, landing next to the unconscious Bastila whose face was pointing at him. He weakly reached out, his strength falling away rapidly as blood pooled under him, his pale, callused hands gently rubbed her smooth cheek.

"I had no idea I was doing this to you…" he croaked.

Suddenly he saw rapid movement in the corner of his fading vision and looked up to see Revan franticly leaning over Bastila's unconscious body, he recognized the pale blue glow of force healing energies as they swept over her. Revan was desperately trying to save Bastila who was falling closer and closer to death, he could sense her life force but it was very weak.

The dieing, hooded man reached out and put his hand on Revan's arm in an attempt to get his attention, his concentration interrupted, Revan opened his eyes for a few moments and listened to what would Motten's final words.

"Bastila… mind altered… four years ago…"

Even despite the situation, Revan was rocked, he looked at the man in utter disbelief. Bastila's own words replayed in his mind; 'what greater weapon is there than to turn an enemy to your cause'. Kulhoun had done a Jedi council on Bastila.

"Is that why she fell?" he asked, shocked. Motten nodded.

"Their… true nature… always comes out… in the end… protect her…" With that, the assassin's body slumped. He looked up as the roof above him faded into oblivion. He finally realized what death actually was.


	15. Chapter 15

Author's note:

So apparently May the Fourth (be with you) is international Star Wars day. Appropriate that I post, I thought. I'm on New Zealand standard time by the way. This is one half of a chapter I had to break up because it got too long, I haven't yet put the finishing touches on the other half.

Reviews are appreciated as always and thanks again to those who reviewed the last chapter. I hope you guys like this, tell me if it's a bit confusing, I've tried to make it as clear as I can.

Cheers.

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Fifteen.

The whirring sound was strangely familiar but that did not necessarily mean Revan had ever heard it before. His jaded mind was cluttered with memories, some of which had never happened, others had but he wished they hadn't, he often had no way of telling which was which. It was sometimes hard to deal with and insanity was never far off, burying it all had been an easy way out but that was a decision he had come to regret, that decision had hurt Bastila.

_I can't think of it that way. I have to look forward, I have to find her and do what I can to help her, however she feels about me._

He gripped the stolen blaster riffle in his hands, it certainly was not his weapon of choice but it would have to do. He made his way up the hallway as quickly as he dared, alert with all his senses to the approach of soldiers or droids, the former he would sense quickly, the latter he knew would be more difficult to detect. He could only hope that he would hear the approach of a droid, which was why the whirring sound concerned him, the fact that he recognized the sound also concerned him but he did not know whether it mattered.

Realizing that he would not make it to the corner of the hallway in time to use it as cover, he leveled his blaster riffle, ready to open fire as whatever came into view. Hopefully he could obliterate the droid before it did him.

At the last second, Revan suddenly recalled how he knew the noise and lifted his finger off the trigger, an instant before he would've destroyed T3-M4.

"T3!"

The astrometric droid had changed since they had last seen each other, Revan wondered who had been maintaining it, or if anyone had. T3 beeped and booped the way it usually did, Revan felt as though it had only been the previous day that he'd said goodbye to the droid on Malachor, the memory was suddenly fresh. He knew that one was real. At least he thought it was.

"Has anyone being maintaining you?"

T3 beeped in response.

"I am not fat! Since when did you become so cheeky?"

T3 beeped in response again.

"That name sounds familiar.." He said thoughtfully, T3 beeped in reply. "The Exile, of course, so she's been teaching you bad habits." The droid beeped some more. "You, Pazzak? With Atton? Who's that and what does that have to do… oh I see, he's not a gracious looser. Listen, we can talk later, first we have to find Bastila." Beeping. "No I haven't seen her." T3 beeped. "Well she must have been side tracked, or got lost. You're certain she was coming to find me?"

He suddenly was concerned, he knew Bastila could take care of herself but T3 would not be able to move as quickly as her, if T3 was there Bastila wasn't then something had to be wrong. In all likelihood, he told himself, she probably just was lost but Revan wanted to find her all the same, just be sure. He wished that he could use the force to locate her as she could him, unfortunately Bastila's force aura wasn't as obvious as his, nor was he as attuned to the force as her, the best he could get was a vague sense that she was in the building.

"We have to find her." T3 beeped. "No I don't know where she is, do you?" T3 beeped. "The main computer core? Can't you just hack into the interior senses from here?" T3 beeped. "You scrambled them that good huh, so how did you find me?" T3 beeped.

Revan turned and looked at the door to the laboratory he had just escaped from, it was fortunate he had not moved very far. He turned back to T3. The droid claimed to have located him when it had hacked into the computer to free Bastila, it had also downloaded a map.

"I see, alright let's go." They did.

Utter chaos had engulfed the building. Since T3 had locked out the security systems, the soldiers were uncoordinated and had little idea of their target's locations. Some of the soldiers Revan had encountered were not even aware that anything was amiss, most of them weren't very competent. A combination of force powers and precisely aimed blaster shots were enough to overwhelm the unprepared patrols they came across, the frequency of which increased as they neared the main core but it was nothing the two could not handle.

They quickly reached their destination and Revan was becoming more and more concerned. He could sense something happening through his bond with Bastila but he wasn't sure what. It was similar to what he had felt when she'd fought Solus. He was becoming more anxious to find her.

"Quickly." He told T3 as the droid attached itself to the main console. They were in a small room with various displays, readouts, switches, dials, buttons and just about every other computer related interface device covering the walls. T3 had made its way toward a prominent display attached to a large key pad, the display was clearly showing the status of the various systems, flashing red symbols were associated with the security functions.

The core seemed to house all the buildings computer systems, which meant that it controlled every motorized door, camera and toilet flush mechanism in the building. Had he been in a more jovial mood, Revan may have considered instructing T3 to disable the toilet flush mechanisms. The thought did not even occur to him however, he just wanted to find Bastila. Sweat was beginning to form on his brow despite the relatively low temperature of the room. He grated his teeth.

"How much longer?" He knew that interrupting T3 could only slow it but he was having difficulty with just waiting. T3 beeped angrily. Revan forced himself to be silent.

The seconds dragged passed.

Finally T3 started beeping again, Revan was temporarily hit by disbelief at what the little droid said.

"_All_ of their classified data?!" He asked, T3 beeped, "I see. Where's Bastila?" T3 beeped and indicated a nearby data pad, Revan picked it up and checked the display, it showed a map of the building, Bastila's location was indicated. Revan turned to leave but then hesitated.

"Are you going to be alright?" T3 beeped, Revan looked at the opposite wall and noticed a small hatch that seemed to have just popped open, he could see cords and cables beyond it. T3 had claimed that the maintenance chute led to the ground floor, Revan was skeptical but guessed that the droid with the computer's databank in its brain would know.

"Well, good luck." He wished the droid, T3 beeped out a list of instructions. "Alright, I guess I'll see you later."

With that, the one time Sith Lord made a hasty escape.

--

Kulhoun's fist slammed into the desktop. The static on screens around his large office mirrored the chaos that had engulfed the building and the operation. _Those damn Jedi will pay for this! _He didn't know how their hacker had infiltrated the building, its defense system's were impregnable, unless they were attacked from the inside. In all their previous attempts however, even Carth Onasi's help had not been enough for any of them to successfully enter the building. He guessed the security arrangements surrounding Revan had somehow enabled one or two of them to slip through.

He looked at the fuzzing screens again, then he realized.

"Tell the men you are looking for a droid." He barked at the sergeant who stood opposite him.

"Uhhh… excuse me sir but how am I supposed to do that? I don't even have short range communications."

As soon as the sergeant spoke he realized he'd made a grave mistake. Kulhoun almost burst a blood vein but strangely, when he replied, his voice was calm and level - for the first few words anyway.

"Sergeant, I don't care if you – RUN DOWN THERE AND TELL THEM YOUR %$^$ SELF!! JUST DO IT!!"

The sergeant ran for his life. He fell over and then jumped back to his feet before he was out of the room.

Kulhoun doubted the bumbling idiots would be able to stop Revan and Bastila. It was of concern that he had not heard from Motten but even if the perverted assassin was dead, Kulhoun still had a few aces up his sleeve. Revan and Bastila would die before ever leaving the building. He produced a small communication device from inside his military dress jacket, it operated independently from the buildings systems.

"Control to agent 4289, copy."

"Agent 4289, copy. All units awaiting orders." Although Motten was the chief member of the C.O.P.S unit, in fact the one who had trained the others, he still wasn't the sole member. Half a dozen more assassins, nearly as good as Motten should be enough.

"Agent 4289, go to the laboratories, kill everything, even droids, I want the entire area sanitized."

"Control, please clarify; even friendly targets?"

"Agent, exactly who the friendly targets are will not be clear. Make your way quickly to the main laboratory floor and start from there. Destroy every target you come across, regardless of whether they clam to or appear to be friendly, the Jedi are your priority one target. Do you understand?"

"Orders received."

"Control out."

Kulhoun lay back in his chair, satisfied. He wasn't sure whether the assassins, as good as they were, would be able to kill Revan and Bastila but it didn't matter, he wasn't counting on them to. He swiveled in his chair to the only screen in his office that was working, one that operated completely separate to all other systems in the building. He began typing in commands. That done, he put his mouth to the communication device again.

"Kulhoun to _Bismarck, _Admiral Cede respond."

"_Bismarck, _you have Cede, go ahead Fleet Admiral." Cede had long since learned that he needed to address Kulhoun as 'Fleet' Admiral, not just Admiral as was normally the custom.

"Send my shuttle down here, I'm going to be leaving soon and have your fleet target this building, destroy it when I give the order, destroy the surrounding area too."

"Sir… destroy it?! There's layers of apartments… Millions of people…" Cede realized he had made a mistake.

Kulhoun sighed.

"Admiral did I say; 'foolishly try to convince me to reconsider my order with some stupid morality issue that I don't care about' or did I say 'have your fleet target this building, destroy it when I give the order'?"

"I'll position the fleet sir."

"Take a rank pin off your collar while you are at it, Commodore."

"…yes sir."

_Idiots, _Kulhoun thought angrily, _why am I surrounded by idiots? _It didn't matter though, he would win in the end. The reason for the buildings impregnability was that there were literally only two ways in or out. The shuttle bay was one and it would stay open to allow him to leave but aside from that, nothing would enter or exit the building, he had made sure of that.

Revan, Bastila and whoever else was there would die when he destroyed the tower, along whatever information they had stolen, the assassins would keep them distracted long enough to stop them from trying to break out. Which was impossible anyway. Not even lightsabers could cut through the hardened dura-steel alloy walls. _I can't loose, there's no way I will loose!_

He cast a last glance around his precious office, slightly saddened by the fact hat he had to destroy it. _I will get another, bigger office, _he thought, cheering himself, _and I'll blame all of this on the Jedi. God I'm brilliant. _He picked up a briefcase that held D.N.A. samples from both Revan and Bastila; samples he could use to clone them and then carry out his plan to have a staged war involving Revan.

Satisfied, the Fleet Admiral stood. He would have to wait for his victory but it did not matter, he would win in the end. He always did.

--

Revan was absolutely stunned. He saw actual remorse in the eyes of the man who had just told him Bastila had been brainwashed, a man who was dieing. It had taken all of his willpower to stop himself from hastening the man's death, something the man no doubt deserved but Revan knew he had to be very careful of the darkside; he well knew the consequences of falling. He briefly recalled the look in Bastila's hate filled eyes when she had tried to kill him, he did not want to emulate her.

Bastila was more important anyway. He continued to pour force energy into her, he watched as her wounds healed and the color slowly returned to her skin, he felt her life force grow stronger and stronger. The wounds were mainly superficial and so were easily healed with the force but she was still very weak and had lost blood, he estimated that she would need several days of rest to recover properly.

Bastila's eyes slowly opened, she stirred.

"Revan… I…" she slowly sat up, somehow more complete than he'd seen her before. Her hate was gone.

"Shh," he told her, "be careful, don't strain yourself."

"I'm so sorry…"

"It's okay." He almost added 'it's not your fault,' but the words didn't feel right. Bastila had a dark side to her, he knew, one she herself would have to come to grips with.

_I'll help you, I'll do whatever it takes._

"I'm so glad you're alright," he said, finally allowing himself to be relieved. She smiled, a weak, frail smile but he was more grateful for it than he would have been for anything in the galaxy. Her smile eclipsed the light of a thousand stars, instantly he knew why he had tuned his back on the darkside, why he had to turn his back on the guilt and self-pity that had driven him to leave her.

_I'll never leave you again._

No force in the galaxy would have been able to stop him from smiling back.

"I'm glad you're alright too."

Time and space stopped around them, they sat, contented to do so for an eternity. Eternity however, had other ideas. The ground below them shuddered, smacking them both with reality.

"We have to get out of here." He said.

--

"Cede, what the hell is going on?! I told you not to fire on the building until I give the order!" Kulhoun was marching through the corridors toward the shuttle bay.

"It's not us sir, a Corellian built freighter just came out of nowhere and started firing on the building. I've dispatched fighters to intercept."

"You're telling me that the best ships in the fleet have been blindsided by some Corellian built freighter?"

"…I, uhh, sensors indicate it entered the atmosphere after giving the proper authorization codes, we didn't see anything unusual until it fired. It hasn't hit any of the main support structure, I think they're trying to cause some sort of distraction."

The ground shook again.

"We don't just give those codes out Commodore."

"I realize that sir, the codes it entered were top level."

_Onasi. Jedi._

"Destroy that ship Commodore."

"Yes sir."

--

Revan hastily helped Bastila dress in a discarded black cloak that he found, it was thick and bulky with unusual gold symbols on it. Bastila regarded it warily but did not resist as he helped her put it on and do it up, it covered her quite effectively. He picked up the two lightsabers that Bastila had used, then found a trolley that looked slightly worse for wear, near to a pile of equipment and helped Bastila onto it.

She protested to being wheeled around with as much vigor as she could summon but Revan knew he couldn't carry her and fight at the same time, nor could she move fast enough by herself. He wheeled her quickly up the hallway. T3 had said to make his way to the shuttle bay, Revan dually did.

--

A large group of soldiers had assembled in the shuttle bay at Kulhoun's bidding, one final measure to ensure that there would be absolutely no escape for the two Jedi and they waited patiently for their master to arrive. They chatted, somewhat nervously to each other about the freighter that continued to defy the Republic fighter's attempts to shoot it down. Kulhoun reportedly was furious about that. The soldiers were aware that they were somewhat exposed but were not willing to disobey the Admiral.

They were surprised and shocked when suddenly the freighter that was causing the disturbance swooped just close enough to the large entrance door to fire in a few smoking canisters that quickly filled the room was gas. The noxious white cloud gave most of the soldiers coughing fits and even those who were equipped with gas masks could see nothing through the thick, white gas.

None of them were aware of freighter's second approach, it hovered just outside the doors for a few, brief moments. Two nimble figures leapt the distance between the freighter and the shuttle bay before swiftly entering the building proper. The gases cleared several moments later, spewing out the massive doors, some of the freighted soldiers tried to make a run for it but a grizzly sergeant who stood near the internal door sent them back. The nervous soldiers hesitantly did so.

Inside the building, the two figures deactivated their stealth units in an empty corridor.

"Can you sense him?" One of the figures asked in smooth, female voice.

"Sure can… there's someone else with him," the other answered, also a women.

"I think I know who that is, let's go."

They took off, both holding lightsabers at the ready.

--

Revan had wheeled Bastila most of the way toward the shuttle bay when he came to a large, hexagonal junction point of several corridors and rooms. Even as he approached the area, he knew that he was walking straight into a trap, he also knew that he had little choice but to do so. His legendary precognition was telling him that time was running short, his instincts were never wrong. Well, except once.

He left Bastila as he approached the room, he knew there was no one behind them, Bastila had been using the blaster riffle from her perch and even in her weakened state was formidable. Despite that, Revan knew the assassins waiting in the next room would be far more than a match for her, probably too much even for him. He only hoped he could kill enough of them, or maybe provide Bastila some opportunity for escape.

He activated the lightsabers and walked into the junction point, his force senses told him exactly where his enemies were and he could tell there were six of them. At the height of his powers, he probably would have been able to kill six assassins but Revan knew those times were long past. The one advantage he did have was the stealth units and force evasion techniques the assassins used meant they probably felt themselves invisible to him.

He suddenly turned and threw his lightsaber like a spear, it flew across the room and impaled an assassin who had no time to react. The five others instantly attacked him but despite only having one lightsaber, the former Sith Lord had plenty of tricks. He dropped to the floor and could hear various different weapons cutting the air above him, some passing millimeters from his skin. He rolled across the ground then leaped to his feet while dodging more projectiles and swung his humming blade several times, cutting three shurikens right out of the air.

The assassins jumped at him, stealth units off, Revan knew he could not stop moving. He dodged and parried his way back and forth across the room, careful to keep himself close enough to the doorway to stop them from attacking Bastila, fortunately it seemed that hadn't occurred to them. He retrieved his other lightsaber at his first opportunity and then, looking to even the odds, used the force to hurl several of his opponents across the room. He attacked the nearest one with gusto, timing his aggressive strokes precisely, his lightsabers moved with grace and skill.

_Like riding a bike, _he thought to himself. For a second, as his opponent retreated slowly, unable to repel Revan's attack completely, he thought he might actually stand a chance of winning, however slim it might be.

Then he was stabbed in the back.


	16. Chapter 16

Authors note:

This chapter assumes that the force conforms to some of the laws of physics, in particular, Newton's law of every force being opposed by an equal and opposite force. I'm comparing a force push to a punch, except with no arms, to reach this conclusion. I'm not sure whether this has been considered by the greater Star Wars community in fact I have a sneaking suspicion that this isn't how it usually works but regardless of that, for the purposes of this fic, it does. I always said this was AU.

This by the way is the penultimate chapter. I have thought of a new ending, since I've decided that my original one was a bit lame. I'm not sure whether you'll be happier with the new ending but I certainly look forward to hearing all of your thoughts after this chapter and next.

Once again, a big thanks to all my reviewers, you people are awesome.

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Sixteen.

Denial was a part of death, he knew.

Some denied it their entire lives, lived as though they were immortal only to find too late that they had been wrong. The wise were able to accept it. Revan did not know if he could be considered wise but he did know that it was the wrong time for him to die.

His hands moved faster than his eyes. His lightsabers clattered to the ground like pins dropping in a silent room, the sound of their impact on the metal floor echoed through his mind. He could hear his heart beating in his ears. His fingers ran along the cold steel protruding from his chest, he slowly looked down.

He still couldn't believe it was happening, he had too much yet to do. It was no less a fate than he deserved, he had bought death to millions, suffering to many more but he still had redemption to achieve. Then, how could he ever truly redeem himself? What if redemption was a dream?

_Bastila. I'm so sorry._

A slow paralysis was spreading throughout his body like a disease. The feeling in his legs was fading, he knew he would not be able to stand much longer. Somewhere in the distance, Bastila cried out. He could not make out what she was saying, or where she was, the fog of death was covering everything. She may not even have uttered any sound, maybe it was just his imagination.

_I'm sorry Bastila. I'm so sorry. I just wish I could have saved you. I would have given anything up for you._

Then, like a gust of wind parting the fog he saw her, blaster riffle in hand, barely able to stand. Revan knew she would be no match for the assassins, he tried desperately to aid her somehow but that was beyond him. He was having difficulty telling what was going on but he realized that the blaster riffle discharged several times then stopped.

He was on his knees. There was blood all around. He felt death's call. His vision had folded in. It would not be much longer he knew and then he accepted.

_I'm dieing._

Then a hurricane hit the room.

Violet, yellow and green lightsabers swept around him like glowing, humming tornadoes. Amongst the blur he saw a woman dressed in flowing dark red and black robes, part of which covered her upper face. She moved with incredible grace and skill, blowing through the assassins who at no point realized what was actually happening. In a flash it was over, the assassins lay dead.

"Quickly!" A calm, smooth female voice called, penetrating the haze that had enveloped him. He felt steely, intense pain ripping at his chest like the claws of a demon, followed quickly by soft, gentle warmth and he realized the vibroblade had been removed.

"Bastila…" he choked out, surprised his voice even still worked.

"It's alright," the woman answered, "my name is Visas Marr, I am a Jedi. My companion, Mira, is helping Bastila."

Revan felt his vision returning, he looked down at his chest saw a gaping hole in his blood soaked robes but healed skin underneath, he looked around him and saw Bastila near by, a lithe but powerful looking, attractive, ginger haired women was helping her to her feet. Bastila nodded at him and gave a somewhat fractured smile, her normally pale face was whiter still and he could see tear drops on the side of her face. She quickly wiped them away.

Mira was not completely comfortable with helping the women who had been their enemy for four years but despite what might have been on the tip of her tong, Mira remained quiet. Revan could see it would take time to earn the forgiveness of their new allies.

"Revan, can you stand?" Visas asked, Revan replied by doing so, he felt completely healed.

"Thank you Visas," he said as he collected his lightsabers.

"We have to get out of here," Visas replied and they all began following her back through the hallway. She produced a small communication device as she ran, Revan helped carry Bastila and the three were able to keep pace.

"Atton, we are ready."

"Hang on! It's gonna be tight!" Atton was clearly in the process of maneuvering, blaring alarms could be heard in the background. "I'm in orbit, I'll be there soon, we're gonna have to go to plan b!"

"Understood." Visas replied, then turned to the three following her, "Quickly."

--

Kulhoun watched as his shuttle landed, relieved to finally be leaving. Although he had been confident that he would win, and he would, every moment that he spent in the building made him a little more apprehensive. Every moment gave his enemies more time to act, something he couldn't allow.

The troublesome freighter was out of sight at that point, Kulhoun understood it had retreated into space. It wouldn't be long before the blasted thing was shot out of the sky, actually it was all working out nicely, the presence of the Jedi would enable him to blame the 'bomb' that was about to destroy the building on them.

He approached the shuttle door.

--

Visas saw the Republic shuttle parked on one side of the cavernous room as she rushed into the shuttle bay, amazingly the large group of soldiers present didn't attack her, instead they looked at her oddly as if not quite sure who she was. She didn't feel the need to stand around to ponder the situation and led her small group around the outside of the soldiers, toward the opposite side of the large shuttle bay door.

Kulhoun heard the commotion and turned, seeing the group of Jedi running around the outskirts of the room he pointed to them and shouted,

"Get them!"

An instant before he did, Visas pulled her communication device, which rang loudly indicating that she was being contacted. Kulhoun stood on the crest of the shuttle door and pulled out his own,

"Cede, do it."

"Visas, I've got a bad feeling about the position of that Republic ship!" Atton had to shout over background noise.

The soldiers in the room raised their weapons ready to fire, at point blank range not even the Jedi could avoid every shot. They all raised lightsabers regardless, knowing they had little choice but to try anyway, they kept running as they did.

"I think they're going to shoot the building!"

All hell broke loose.

Atton's words ignited a panic among the assembled soldiers who could easily believe that what he had said was true and being the mostly inexperienced group that they were, thanks to Kulhoun's tendency to arrange deaths for or otherwise use up soldiers like they were going out of fashion, none of the green replacements could hold their nerve. As one they swarmed on the shuttle, their only visible escape route, forgetting all loyalties except to their own survival in an instinct driven, desperate struggle.

Kulhoun's foot was centimeters from the inside of the doorway when he was roughly jostled aside by the large group. He fell onto the hard, concrete floor, the impact knocked the communication device from his hand and he watched in horror as it bounced several times before finally flying over the edge. He scuttled to the end of the shuttle bay in time to see the small device float downward, far beyond his reach.

Visas had not stopped running and reached the opposite side of the shuttle bay door as the engines of the Republic shuttle were powering up. She watched as a large group was still trying to push onto the small vessel, some gripping parts of its undercarriage, some jumping on its roof. She saw the white coated Admiral lying near the edge and watching in horror as his escape route took off.

She looked out and saw the Ebon Hawk swooping downward toward her, dodging and ducking shots from a swarm of pursuing fighters as it did. Atton was piloting it brilliantly, Mical was doing excellently in the turret as well. Without waiting another moment, she jumped off the edge.

"What the hell?!" Revan was shocked, standing further back he could not see the freighter diving toward them and when it did appear, it was nothing but a white flash.

"Don't worry," Mira assured him, "everything's fine."

--

Cede sighed. He looked out at the Republic's capital sprawling before the guns of the great warship he commanded. _Bismarck _was the most heavily armed vessel in the fleet, its six, mighty, forward turbo-laser cannons could reduce almost anything to scrap, he hated to think what they would do to the planet surface.

_This isn't what I signed up for, _he pondered. He had considered many things when he had received the order, everything from disobeying to throwing himself out the air lock. He knew though that whatever he did the result would be the same. If he failed to follow orders, Kulhoun would have him shot, then carry them out himself. In the end, he decided that if it was going to be done, he might as well not get himself killed in the process.

He looked slowly at his gunner, the man seemed to be feeling the same.

"Fire," he said at last.

--

"Never tried what?!" Revan replied. Mira looked over the edge and watched as the _Ebon_ _Hawk_ collected the falling Visas.

She would later reflect on just how fortunate they were to have the services of Bao-Dur, the only man in the galaxy, as far as she knew, that had ever been able to build a tractor beam small enough to be mounted on a ship the _Hawk_'s size. She watched as the ship swooped upward after grabbing Visas, who was towed behind at breakneck speed while it drew her toward the open landing hatch.

Mira could see that Atton had not been able to double back into position to collect them as the fighters were making things very difficult for him, she knew they needed to wait otherwise the Hawk might not have enough time to get back but her force senses were telling her that she had no time. She shared a look with Revan who obviously sensed the same thing, she grabbed him and Bastila, all three plunged over.

From the cockpit of the _Hawk_, several kilometers away, Atton Rand took note of their jump and swore profusely. Seconds later he realized why they had done it.

The _Bismarck_'s turbo-laser beam hit the building at its spire, annihilating the thin point then setting off a chain of mighty explosions that traveled down the massive, towering skyscraper. Halfway between the top and the bottom, the shuttle bay was many kilometers above the surface but the explosions rapidly consumed the immense structure in a spectacular but terrifying display. Nonetheless, several seconds passed between the time that the building was hit and when shuttle bay was destroyed, Kulhoun knew he had to work fast.

The Fleet Admiral wouldn't have lasted ten seconds in the dog eat dog environment of the military hierarchy if he hadn't become a master of back up plans and escape routes. Several times throughout his career, these secondary options had saved him, underlining the importance of always having an escape plan.

While the shuttle was lifting off he scrambled to his feet and ran toward a concealed compartment he'd hidden in the wall of the shuttle bay many years before. As the building was hit and the explosions began traveling down its length, he was strapping a propulsion pack to himself. In the instant before he would've been incinerated he activated the jet boosters and shot out of the shuttle bay just in time.

A massive shockwave hit Mira, Revan and Bastila with force enough to hurl them through the air and negate even the force of gravity. Mira gripped Revan who held onto Bastila for dear life, a few seconds after jumping they were halfway across the planet it seemed and carrying on at incredible speed. None of them screamed or yelled but Revan hoped that whatever the seemingly crazy people intended worked.

Suddenly he sensed danger and despite the air whipping around all parts of his body, was just able to activate one of his lightsabers and deflect several blaster shots that would otherwise have killed him.

Visas looked on as well, the trio was below her position in the skies above Coruscant and she watched as the white figure with the rocket pack flew after them, rapidly closing the distance. Although she did not 'see' in the sense that non-Miraluka did, her force sight told her that Kulhoun was holding two blaster pistols and also had a large vibrosward attached to his belt. She also could see that her allies would need help.

She put the communication device to her mouth,

"Mical, release me!"

She felt herself unleashed straight away and began hurtling toward the battle, as the _Hawk _dived and ducked above her, constantly only just able to save itself from destruction. The Miraluka unclipped her violet lightsaber from her belt, as difficult as it was with air whipping around her. Her robes were flapping violently and disintegrating at the edges but she paid them no heed. She did not even allow the fact her face cloth had long since blown off her head to distract her.

Perhaps it was better that she could not see the city planet sprawling out in all directions, rapidly coming up to meet her, or the numerous fighters and other craft that were likewise speeding toward them. She did sense that they had little time and gripped her lightsaber tightly.

Revan continued to deflect the blaster beams that were flying at them but knew that it was only a matter of time before one would cut though his defenses. The shear speed of the air rushing past him made moving at all incredibly difficult and taxing, moving fast enough to deflect the beams was another matter all together. He watched as Visas swooped toward Kulhoun who seemed unaware of her approach and he was suddenly hit by an unpleasant premonition.

"Look after Bastila!!" he shouted at Mira, who was doing her best to hold onto them both. Revan then grabbed her wrist as she let go of him, he let go as well and force pushed the two away from him and toward where the _Hawk _was trying to get closer to them.

"No!" Bastila shouted but was unable to do anything about Revan who used the force push to also propel himself away from them. He continued to deflect shots with his other hand.

Kulhoun fired shot after shot at Revan, whom he knew would not be able to hold them out indefinitely, even as the one time dark lord began to fly toward him. He watched Revan's gestures and realized that he was using the force to bring them together, no doubt some sort of force pull, something the other Jedi he'd spotted coming at him from above was also doing. She would be upon him first, he knew and he waited, hoping she still thought he had not noticed her.

Revan realized at the last second what was about to happen but knew he could do nothing to stop it. Visas was too close and moving too fast for him to intervene without making things worse and there was no way he could warn her. He watched in horror, hoping the Jedi would be somehow able to avoid Kulhoun's trap but he knew she would not.

Visas had her lightsaber ready to cut Kulhoun in half but at the last possible second, Kulhoun dropped both of his blasters and produced a vibrodagger from within his clothing. Visas would never know how but he was fast enough to quickly alter his trajectory, moving himself above her and simultaneously slid the dagger into her before she could defend with her lightsaber.

A stream of blood began flying out behind her and Kulhoun was forced to let go of the dagger and grab the handle of his vibrosward to defend against Revan's attack. As fast as he was able, Revan began striking at Kulhoun, putting himself between the Admiral and the Miraluka. He used the force to push her back toward Mira and Bastila, who were being collected by the _Hawk_'stractor beam. He once again used the force to pull himself toward Kulhoun and they began trading blows, Kulhoun, he found, was able to move like lightning.

Mira used the force to pull the injured Visas toward her, moments later the three were drawn into the _Hawk_'s open boarding ramp during a temporary respite from their pursuit that Atton had been skilled enough to earn them. The ginger haired Jedi quickly began working to heal her fallen comrade as soon as they were aboard, her hands shook as she ran over the only healing lesson she'd ever had in her mind, she knew that Mical, their best healer, would be too preoccupied to assist them and that meant it was up to her.

"We have to go back for him!" Bastila shouted from her position on the ground several meters away, Mira glanced quickly out the closing boarding ramp and saw swarms and swarms of fighter's and other craft between their ship and the distant, dueling pair of Revan and Kulhoun. She realized immediately that it was unlikely they would be able to go back, she was unsurprised to note the floor tilting in a direction that suggested they were going upward.

"We have to get out of here now or we'll never survive!" She continued to work on Visas.

"NO!" Bastila shouted and hauled her weak body upward, then presumably began staggering toward the cockpit. Mira gave a thought to pursuing her but knew she could not leave Visas. She heard beeping and saw T3 trundle by, she felt relieved that Atton had at some stage been able to collect it, the little droid trundled after Bastila.

--

Revan distantly realized that the _Hawk was_ leaving the atmosphere but focused mainly on his duel with Kulhoun. He had grabbed onto the Admiral, bringing them together with the force and was attempting to detach him from his rocket pack, during the ensuing wrestling match, they had both dropped their weapons to fend off the other's close range attacks. Kulhoun was incredibly strong and extremely determined to strangle him, even with the force, Revan was having real trouble keeping the man's determined grip away from his neck.

They pirouetted through the air as they wrestled with little control over their trajectory, by that stage they were quite near to the ground and were risking a pasting over a near by sky scraper. Revan determinedly gripped Kulhoun's wrist in one hand and was trying to reach one of the clips that held the pack on Kulhoun's back with his other. With equal determination, Kulhoun was trying to keep his hand away from the clip and strangle him. They were each trying to kick each other at the same time and several times Revan felt that Kulhoun's legs had been forced into the combustion trail of the afterburners. The Admiral did not seem to be in any pain.

His grip on the clip slipped and he grabbed Kulhoun's white jacket, holding hard enough to tear a big section of it off Kulhoun's shoulder. Revan was shocked to see droid actuators and movement arms underneath.

"Surprised, Revan?" Kulhoun shouted mockingly in his powerful voice, Revan was.

"What the hell are you?" he shouted back as they continued to twist and turn through the air, coming close on several occasions to the sides of buildings, they were also being pursued by fighters but those were hesitant to fire at their Admiral.

"I was merely a man once but droid bodies are much stronger."

"That's illegal!"

Kulhoun laughed.

"Why would I care about that?!"

--

Bastila rushed as fast as she was able through the halls of the _Hawk_, T3 approached from behind, she was hit by an idea and turned to the small droid,

"We have to contact Carth!" she yelled at it. T3 beeped at her and led the way to the communications room.

--

Revan unleashed the force on Kulhoun's robotic body and was dismayed to see it had no effect. Kulhoun laughed again.

"Science has an answer for almost everything, Revan! We may not know _why _the force works but we do know _how_!"

Revan realized he needed another plan but fortunately, one occurred to him straight away. Summoning all of his force energy reserves he stopped trying to keep Kulhoun's hand away from his neck, which instantly latched onto him, cutting off his air supply. Regardless, Revan was able to use the amount of strength and power he had just freed up to instantly activate all the clips that held the rocket pack onto Kulhoun's back with the force, the thing shot off ahead of them.

Kulhoun was unconcerned and redoubled his attempts to strangle Revan, who had earlier noticed them approaching a balcony in a near by skyscraper. Ignoring Kulhoun, he manipulated their trajectory with the force and aimed them straight at the glass-covered balcony. They flew straight through the glass, which shattered around them, and into someone's living room, Revan used the complete extent of his force powers to push on the far wall, counteracting his velocity, while simultaneously force pushing Kulhoun toward the wall.

The one time dark lord rolled violently to a stop amongst the couches and chairs, which provided a soft enough landing. Kulhoun's grip on Revan's neck, meanwhile, had been broken by the speed at which he had continued to fly, he slammed into the back wall and crashed right through it.

Revan slowly began to scrape himself off the pile of broken furniture, he felt as if his head had almost been ripped off, which it had. Fortunately, he had kept his head and had been able to slow himself enough to avoid major injuries, despite that he still felt like hell and hoped the impact had killed Kulhoun. He doubted he would be able continue fighting but nonetheless unclipped his second lightsaber from his belt and staggered in the direction of the caved in wall where Kulhoun had hit. Actually, it was lucky no one was home.

The next room had obviously been a dining room but at that point had droid components and broken furniture scattered from one end of it to the other in a random mess that covered the ground. There was no single 'body' left but Revan saw some sort of organic matter painted onto the floor, he guessed Kulhoun had kept his original brain or something.

He realized that he needed to escape and began to stagger around looking for an exit but found he was too late. A troop transport was hovering near to the balcony and soldiers had begun swarming into the room then the door blew open and more soldiers flooded in, entirely too many for Revan to fight. He tiredly dropped his lightsaber and raised his hands.


	17. Chapter 17

Author's note:

Chapter 17, hope you like it. Short epilogue to follow, it _will _be the end of this storey. I've already decided to write a sequel but not for a while yet. I'm going to have to come up with some new ideas and a new plot. I think there is a definite direction being promoted in this chapter but I enjoy making the obscure possibilities believable. Well at least; I try to.

If anyone has any suggestions or wants to tell me what they'd like to see included in the sequel, I'm all ears. Well, this is email, so I'll be all eyes. Well, I'll be all something anyway.

I also have another, different KotOR fic that I have been planning for some time, it will be coming out soon.

Once again, thanks to my reviewers, you have inspired me to write this, I really appreciate your support.

Cheers!

--

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Seventeen.

It stuck out from the jagged, lifeless rocks that surrounded it, unflinching in it's defiance of the powerful storm that had battered it throughout its long history. It had always rained on the east cost of Sylvain's largest continent, for as long as the stone tower had stood, some thousand years or more. Any of the spires of Coruscant would have dwarfed it but in the absence of other buildings, it seemed immense. A pair of modern, Republic shuttlecraft sat on an artificially flattened area near the base of the tower, the only outward signs of the complex and contemporary alterations to its interior.

The largest room at the top of the tower was relatively silent, only the occasional, muted comment from one or the other man interrupted the silent stillness. The rain beating against the glass windows provided a low background noise, punctuated by rumbling thunder. Classical wooden furniture and plush red carpet decorated the vast room, large, intricate paintings hung on the walls. A chandelier cast dull shadows throughout the room while a small, open fire crackled in one of the corners. A hologram of the entire Republic floated above the expansive wooden desk, flashing yellow symbols indicated the positions of various fleets.

Grand Admiral Marcos Sparren, Supreme Commander of the Galactic Republic Military Forces sat in a high backed chair on one side of the desk. His thin, bony fingers were steepled in front of his skeleton like, pale face. His grey eyes seemed to hold more life than the rest of his thin body, they flicked between the hologram in front of him and Fleet Admiral Carth Onasi with a cold, calculating stare.

Sparren detested the Republic's capital, only traveling there when it was absolutely necessary. He only ever spoke or met with a select group, all others regarded him as something of a ghost. Various theories of who or what he was circulated throughout the military, some doubting that he actually existed.

Carth had loathed telling his reclusive superior he was available to assess their strategic operations at a time when he knew his Jedi allies would need his support. He knew that Sparren was suspicious of him however and could not risk being exposed. Several hours into the meeting, Sparren had not allowed it to end, despite that nothing really was being said. Carth felt tension building; he was desperate to find out what had occurred on Coruscant.

A personal communication device rang loudly, shattering the silence in the room. A feeling of dread formed in the pit of Carth's stomach, there were few reasons why that particular device would be ringing, none of them good. He hurriedly stood, apologized to Sparren and stepped out of the room before taking the call, a small blue hologram of the last person he would've expected, appeared on the small device.

"Carth!"

"Bastila!?"

"Help me! They've got Revan!"

"What?! Hang on a minute, what happened?! Where is he ?!"

"I don't know! Quickly! Do something!"

"Calm down, what's happened?"

"So it is true," Sparren said from the doorway, where he had eavesdropped. Carth reactively shut off the device but realized it was too late. "You are with the Jedi."

"Where is Revan!"

"I must confess, I don't know but I do have something else you will be very interested in." Sparren slowly walked back into the large office. Realizing the game was up, Carth threw caution into the wind.

"Stop playing games you bastard, where is Revan!?"

Sparren coolly sat behind his desk.

"Sit_ down_ Carth," his tone was suddenly penetrating, enough to wilt most men. Carth ignored him, he pulled out a blaster gun.

"Listen to me, I'm only going to say this once; release Revan now or you're dead."

"Do that and your son also dies."

Carth froze in cold terror, sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Believe it or not I already knew you were working with the Jedi and I anticipated this situation. I've taken measures to ensure your loyalty."

Several moments later Sparren, Carth and an escort of soldiers were entering a brig, well, prison may have been a better description, or perhaps even dungeon. The walls were stone and primitive steel bars held captives rather than force fields. Carth knew the facility was thousands of years old and Sparren simply had not bothered upgrading the equipment, although he obviously had maintained it. None of that entered the Fleet Admiral's conscious mind however, particularly once he saw his son shackled to the wall of a cell. He dashed to Dustil's side.

"I'm sorry father, I was compromised, there were too many. I'm sorry." Dustil was weak, obviously deprived of food and water, swelling red marks littered his muscular frame. Tattered remains of pants hung off his lower body. Carth felt raw fury but put it aside for a few moments.

"It's alright son, I'll get you out of here, I promise," he whispered to Dustil, then turned to Sparren and his group of soldiers. "Free him now," he said in a low, dangerous tone. The soldiers raised their guns.

"Not yet Carth," Sparren replied firmly. He was not aware that one of the soldiers he had selected for his personal escort was a man Carth had known for years.

Laurence Tureaud was a great bear of a man and many times throughout the Mandalorian wars, he and Carth had saved each other's lives. Laurence was as formidable as he looked, few outside the Jedi order were a match for him, Carth knew. Once Tureaud had carried him out of a burning valley, both had only just survived that day, such loyalty went beyond everything and was not recorded anywhere. The Fleet Admiral knew he would be able to count on his old friend without even glancing at him.

"If you co-operate, your son will live, I'm sure you can guess the alternative. So what will it be?" Sparren stated coldly.

Carth quickly formulated an escape plan, he knew exactly where the shuttle landing pad was and didn't anticipate too much difficulty escaping the facility. Just as he was about to make his move, an imposing, cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows that surrounded them.

Revan had once told Carth he was force sensitive and should learn to control the force. Carth wouldn't have a bar of it, he respected the Jedi but didn't trust them, although he far preferred them to the Sith. He certainly did not want to involve himself too closely with the secretive order, despite most of its current members being his close friends.

Nevertheless, there were occasions when he realized that Revan had been right and wished that he had followed the advice. As he studied the cloaked man, Carth immediately realized he was looking at a Dark Jedi, he knew that even he and Tureaud would be no match for the man.

"Do want you want me to kill this one, master?" The tall, cloaked figure seemed to choke. He sounded as though he'd spent a week in the desert with no water but with his imposing presence, could have squealed and still been intimidating. It didn't surprise Carth that such a man would be in Sparren's service, even though Dark Jedi would usually only call another Dark Jedi 'master'.

"Well, Carth?"

Carth had been though enough wars to not be afraid of any man but he knew there was only one choice he could make. He did not care about his own life but there was no way he would let Dustil die.

"You'll regret this, Sparren. I swear you'll regret this."

--

Bastila was numb, she was hardly aware of what was happening, she didn't want to be aware. She was tired, could hardly walk but could think of nothing else but Revan. She closed her eyes, as if doing so would shut out reality. It did not. She hardly noticed as the beaten, battered _Ebon Hawk _touched down roughly on the Enclave's landing pad, surrounded by a cloak of darkness as it did. A modern Republic shuttle already sat near by. She awoke to find Carth gently nudging her.

"Where are we?" She asked coldly, her mind had retreated into the depths of her consciousness, she had been told a couple of times that the Jedi were based out of Dantooine but she intentionally did not search her memory for the information.

She had also found out that the surviving colonists had moved into the vast cave network after the Jedi-hating Republic had bombed the planet, consequently considering it uninhabited. The ready-made enclave, which had largely escaped the most recent bombings due to being unoccupied at the time, enhanced Dantooine's suitability for a secret base. One of Bao-Dur's creations hid their activities from orbital detection but lifting off and landings were always silent, nervous times.

Bastila had more than one reason for wanting to forget about Dantooine's most recent bombing, in what felt like another life, she had been in command of the fleet that had delivered it.

Her presence had caused debate during the journey back to Dantooine, no one was completely sure whether they had rescued or captured Bastila. They had expected to be bringing Revan back, if anyone and had certainly not anticipated their circumstances. Atton had his opinions but he had been largely, if reluctantly, subdued by Mical and Visas, who thought that letting Carth deliver judgment would be wisest.

Mira had not spoken on the issue, she vividly remembered Revan asking her to 'look after Bastila', right before quite possibly giving his life to save Visas. She also remembered the things Bastila had done. In the end, all agreed that Bastila would stay in the medical bay after Visas had recovered enough to no longer need it. Bastila did not complain, she welcomed the solitude.

"Dantooine," Carth replied, "Are you alright?"

She looked up, he was a pale, gaunt version of the man she had previously known. He seemed to have aged a lifetime, heavy dark shadows hung below his tired eyes, never had the wrinkles on his forehead seemed so pronounced, or the growing grey shades in his hair. She could tell something substantial was weighing on him. A feeling of dread briefly formed within her until she checked though her bond that Revan was still alive. She could not determine his location in space but she could sense his life in the force, if only faintly. She knew though that his being alive was not necessarily good news.

"Revan…"

Carth sighed.

"He's been captured but I don't know where they've taken him. Kulhoun is dead, the destruction of HQ has been all over the media for the last week, will be for a few more I guess, the military are blaming it on the Jedi."

"We have to find him."

"Come into the enclave, we're going to have to decide what to do next."

--

The solemn atmosphere of the journey back had also infected the council chambers, a room that held unpleasant memories for almost all present. Extensive modifications and a teal/sunrise color scheme had buried the ghosts of the past however and the room, by itself, seemed full of life. Usually a warm, uplifting place, the brightly colored room often seemed to foster an atmosphere of hope. Hope seemed false to the group at that time, in light of recent events.

A long discussion had taken place in which Bastila had recounted every detail of her recent travels, she could hide nothing from the collective perceptiveness of Jolee, Mira, Carth and Visas. The four had come up with all the right questions and pried every detail out of her. A somewhat mournful silence had followed as they reflected on their inability to save Revan. Atton, T3, Bao-Dur, Mical, Mission and Zaalbar were also present but had been mostly silent. The apprentices had been sent to the sublevels for study while the meeting took place.

"The fleet has facilities all over the galaxy," Carth noted, "they could have taken him anywhere." He knew that Dustil would have been moved immediately after their meeting too. Mission had told him earlier that she had lost contact with his son, Carth had assured her that Dustil would be alright but said nothing more despite the Twi'lek women's obvious concern.

"We have to find him," Bastila stated determinedly.

"That will be difficult," Mical replied. Suspicion of their new 'friend' was lifting, many in the room remained wary nonetheless. Part of the earlier discussion had involved informing Bastila of what had happened during the previous twenty years, it was clear to all that her altered memories were not accurate. "Do we have any idea of where to look?"

Bastila had refused to discuss what had been implanted in her mind but as she was told the truth, remembered things. The shock of realizing what she been deceived into doing hardly penetrated her numb mind.

T3 beeped and even Bastila could interpret its negatory answer, others shook heads.

"I haven't been able to find any information on holo-net," Mission added, she had been searching the interplanetary network continuously since Dustil's disappearance.

"Did you distribute the information T3 stole?" Carth asked.

"Yeah, the resistance groups are putting it out there, I don't know whether it will make any difference though."

"Why?" Bastila asked, "surely once people realize what is going on they will vote against the current senate in the next elections."

A silence followed, glances were shared around the room, eventually Carth seemed to silently draw the short straw.

"Bastila, this isn't a totalitarian regime, they don't have complete power, they control through mass deception. The mainstream news media are all secretly owned by the military, they've been trying to shut down holo-net for a long time and they have almost succeeded. Only the resistance groups can use it now and they already know the senate is corrupt."

"What do you mean? Is there no way of advertising the truth?"

"Not since the IGN was shut down, they were the last independent broadcaster. The senate accused them of lying, they were able to convince the public it was true. Most people have no idea what's really happening."

Another uncomfortable silence followed.

"Surely you must be able to find out where he is somehow," Bastila quietly said, as if trying to convince herself.

Carth shook his head slowly.

"They don't tell me things like that, I'm not involved, that was Kulhoun's department. I guess Sparren will pull out another lackey now, he probably wanted it this way, Kulhoun was getting quite ambitious."

"Well then how did you find out we would be on Coruscant?"

"Luck mostly, besides, I'm beginning to think they meant for us to find out."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it, Sparren wanted Kulhoun dead and he is, he also wanted Revan and he's got him, he also just about killed most of you and…"

"And what?"

"Nothing. I think we've been played here."

"I can locate him with our bond, if we get close enough, if I'm on the same planet as him I will probably be able to locate him."

"Yeah, that narrows it down a bit, there are only several hundred planets he might be on." Atton said.

Bastila was about to reply but Carth beat her to it.

"Bastila, I want to find Revan too but we've got bigger problems."

"Like what?!"

"Like what to do if they do to Revan what they did to you," Carth shot back, "we all know what he's capable of and I don't think they'll be able to control him or stop him. If Darth Revan comes back, he'll… he'll probably kill us all."

"_She_ could stop him." Atton said confidently. There were nods of agreement among those who knew who _she _was.

"Not if she doesn't know she has to," Mical replied.

"Revan said something about somehow communicating through the force when we were on the _Bismarck._" Bastila mentioned, several heads turned in her direction. It was a carefully considered lie, she had heard of such a technique but not from Revan.

"How?" Atton demanded. Bastila shook her head.

"I don't know, I just heard him talking about it, I'm not sure what he meant but if we find him, we can ask him."

"I've heard of it," Jolee said, alone in realizing her lie. The old Jedi smiled as he spoke, he did not blame her in the slightest. "Not sure how it's done, the masters knew."

"Atris." Atton said.

"I don't know if she would know… or if she would help us if she did," Mical considered.

"We could ask Brianna to ask her," Mira added.

"Let's do it," Atton said, "we've waited for her to come back for too long, I don't believe anything that old witch ever said anyway, it's time we started trying to find her."

"Agreed," Carth replied, "will you need parts to repair the _Hawk_?"

"Yes," Bao-Dur answered, "here you go." He passed Carth a datapad listing their requirements. Carth perused the list and nodded.

"It shouldn't be a problem, I'll commandeer them from the fleet."

"What if they start asking questions?" Bastila asked. Carth looked at her as though she had said something unintelligent.

"I'll order them not to," he replied.

--

"You're going to go after Revan aren't you." Carth's voice pierced the silence. Bastila looked down. She had been lost in thought, staring up at the stars. A small balcony had been built above the council chambers, she could hear the muffled voices of the other Jedi below as they planned their mission to find the Exile. Carth had joined Bastila on the balcony soon after she had left the group. "You should ask the others to help, I think Mira and probably Visas would, I could get you a ship."

"Won't they want to find _her_ too?"

"I have a feeling they would help you."

A few more moments of silence passed, each was lost in thought.

"I found this on the _Bismarck_." Carth held out the double bladed, yellow lightsaber Bastila had constructed years before as an apprentice. She gratefully accepted it, not attached to that weapon in particular but warmed by Carth's consideration.

"What's troubling you, Carth?"

"I uhh… I just hope that… that one day you'll understand…"

Bastila felt a cold shiver go down her spine.

"Understand what, Carth?" Carth was not even looking her in the eye.

"If you had to choose between someone you love very much and someone else, what would you do?"

Bastila ran but it was too late. She was unaware that tiny capsules had been in her blood stream since Carth had injected them while she had been unconscious on the _Hawk_. The capsules had just released strong sedatives, which had quickly circulated around her body. Carth let go of the remote activation switch in his pocket. Bastila slumped to the ground.

"I'm so sorry Bastila, I really am. I've lost everything else, I can't loose Dustil as well, I just can't."

--

Carth had laid Bastila on the Republic shuttle's only bed when Visas arrived, she hesitantly stepped aboard and closed the door after her. It was the only place on Dantooine where their privacy was guaranteed.

"Let's get this over with, Visas."

"I do this with no heart. You have been the only reason we all survived after the Republic betrayed us Carth and I see your dilemma, perhaps this is for the best… but it is not something I would wish on anyone."

"It's the only way, Visas."

"I just hope that in trying to save them both, you don't doom them both."

The Miraluka looked sadly on Bastila's sleeping form. Carth did not respond. Visas walked slowly over to the bed and knelt, she placed her palms on Bastila's chest.

"Do you think she'll ever…"

"If I do this correctly, she never will but if I cannot sever her completely, then the bond will remain in part and they will realize she still lives." Visas sighed. "It has been a long time since my former Master taught me this."

The Miraluka bowed her head. Carth looked away.

--

Marcos Sparren grimaced. In some ways, emotional pain was crueler than physical pain, he himself had experienced loss, it was certainly not something he liked to inflict even if he knew it was necessary. He was relieved when the mournful screaming stopped, though the echo remained for some time in the long, stone hallway.

"So, it is done then," he said. He shared the small room with a short, stocky, hooded figure. "She is dead?"

"I believe so master, he certainly does and he would know, the force bond would say."

"Will it be long?"

"No master, Revan already hates himself and now he will hate the galaxy as well, soon he will desire revenge, we will make him forget everything else and then he will be a Dark Lord once more." The small, sinister figure seemed to come alive at the thought, "and the galaxy will _burn_. None can stand against Darth Revan."

"Will we be able to control him?"

"I think so master. Your machines can write any memory onto him."

"Make sure there are no mistakes."

"Yes master."

"Can we do a similar thing to the Onasi boy?"

"Yes master. He has much hate, too"

"Do it."


	18. Epilogue

Ashes of Redemption, a fanfic by Captin Azza.

Based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Epilogue.

_I can see your face among the stars._

The mystic, glowing orbs had been the source of legends, religions and beliefs throughout the galaxy for as long as it had existed. Even with the benefit of technology, no one really, truly, knew why the stars seemed to write messages across the night's sky. Bastila had often turned to them in times past. Growing up in the very enclave to which she had just returned, she'd had difficulty in making friends but the stars had never judged her. Somehow though, this time felt different.

_Revan, tell me, what should I do?_

Having just stepped out of the discussion amongst the lost Jedi who had rescued her, she was aware of Carth's footsteps as he slowly made his way up onto the balcony with her. She acknowledged him as he emerged, Carth nodded back but said nothing, content it seemed to silently observe the stars as she was.

"I am sorry," she said at length. She was.

"Bastila, I…"

"What?"

"It's just, sometimes I wonder, _why _are we doing this?"

She looked at him. It was strange for her to see him that way, he'd always been the decisive one in the past, always able to make the right decision quickly. To see him unsettled, hesitant and unsure, Bastila realized her friend was very troubled.

"What do you mean?"

"We've spent all this time trying to…_save _the Republic but, sometimes I wonder whether they _want_ to be saved."

"You mean whether we should try to stop a regime that has no problem killing thousands of innocents just to hide their dirty secrets. How many people died when that building exploded Carth?"

Carth sighed.

"Four thousand, eight hundred and thirty two."

Silence followed. Bastila looked up to the stars for several more moments. They had little to do with the Jedi teachings yet, without the stars, space would be a lifeless, black void, she knew. The living force would not exist without the stars.

_Would that be better, or worse than how things are now?_

"Let me ask you something," he said, his voice firm, his moment of weakness over, it seemed, "did you _really _not know that your memory was wrong?"

"I guess, on some level I must have but…"

"But what? I just don't understand how you could have done those things, I trusted you Bastila, I thought you'd changed after Malak."

"Carth…"

Carth was silent. Several quiet moments passed. Even the stars no longer offered Bastila much solitude.

"Sometimes, when the truth is painful, it's easier to believe the lie."

"So that's your excuse? You were too scared too face the truth?"

"It's no excuse, Carth."

She sighed.

"You know why Revan left known space don't you?"

"I think so… he felt guilty about his past."

"He was trying to escape his past… and his future… everything. I suppose, in a way, I was doing the same thing."

"Well I think you should have done it Revan's way."

"So do I, Carth but I wasn't offered a choice. I wouldn't blame you for hating me."

"I don't hate you Bastila, I don't think any of us really do, it's just hard to trust someone who seems to keep doing what you did."

"It won't happen again."

"No, it won't."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Bastila looked at him oddly for a few moments but Carth said no more. Eventually she returned to staring up into space. It occurred to her that though the stars were ever lasting while each one of them only lived for a comparatively short time in the grand scheme of things. Thinking along those lines was an easy way to feel insignificant.

_It's what we do with the time we have._

"I wish there was a way I could redeem myself, _truly _redeem myself."

"I'm sure there is."

"The Republic is… in ruin, Revan is captured. I feel like all I have are the ashes of redemption."

"We all make mistakes Bastila, you've made worse ones than most people but it's what you do about it."

Bastila didn't reply, he was right of course. She looked up once more; it was easy to loose one's self in the great expanse.

_Whatever my destiny holds, I will not lie to myself again. I'll find you Revan, I promise._

While the stars of a troubled galaxy shone above her, Bastila Shan, Jedi knight, slowly but firmly decided to breathe new life into the ashes.

--

Author's note:

Whoo hoooo! I'm finished! It's done! My first one! This is great!

I probably started writing this storey more than a year ago, not really intending to post it at the time, I was sort of a bit nervous about doing so at first. Eventually I did though and I'm pleased that I did. Writing this storey has been an extremely fun and rewarding experience, one I have enjoyed immensely. I know I have made some mistakes but I have learned a lot and hopefully with future stories will be able to improve. That's the idea anyway.

I'd like to thank, of course, my reviewers again. I was truly grateful for each one. I never realized how difficult it would be to write this fic until I did, I can certainly see why stories often are never finished now but hearing from all of you has certainly made it worthwhile.

Big thanks to **Bonsaiblob **whose given me some very in depth reviews and hasn't been afraid to be honest, I need that sometimes! Thanks heaps!

I also would like to thank **6tailedninja** and **one of the lost**, you've both been awesome!

And of course, **bluefalcon1138** has been the sort of reviewer that I'm sure other writers would dream of having. You've been really, very helpful, thank you very much!

Where to from here? A sequel is definitely on the cards, as I said. I've been getting some ideas for that now so I'll probably start working on it fairly soon. I've been hearing that people want a more in depth exploration of the political situation in the Republic and to downplay the whole lightside/darkside thing. I'll definitely think on that.

In the meantime, I've been writing another vastly different fic, pre KotOR 1, about Arren Kae and Revan. It will be quite a departure from Ashes, more of a traditional type Star Wars fic but with action and plot twists, like this one. I'm calling it Dawn of Shadow at the moment.

To possible future readers, please review, it's never too late, especially if you've made it this far.

With that, I shall leave you all. Hope to hear from you all again in my future stories and look out for Ashes 2 when I write it, I can't say when that will be. I'll keep my profile page updated so check back there.

Thanks everyone, cheers!


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